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MORAVIAN  MISSIONS 


TWELVE  LECTURES 


BY 


AUGUSTUS   C.  THOMPSON,  D.D. 


AUTHOR    OF    "THE  BETTER    LAND"  "MORNING    HOURS   IN    PATMOS" 
"THE  MERCY  SEAT*'  ETC 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 
1882 


COPYRIGHT  BY 
A.  C.  THOMPSON. 

1882. 


33eacon 


THOMAS  TODD,   STKRKOTYPBR, 
BOSTON. 


TO 

THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  UNITED  BRETHREN, 

ON  THE  THIRD  JUBILEE 

OF 

THEIR   FIRST   FOREIGN    MISSION, 

£tigtt*t  21,  1882, 

THE  ONE   HUNDRED  AND   FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 

OP 
THE  MISSION   TO   ST.  THOMAS. 


550293 


PREFACE. 


THE  following  Lectures  form  one  of  the  courses  on  For- 
eign Missions  delivered  at  the  Theological  Seminary,  An- 
dover,  during  the  years  1877-1880,  and  to  the  Theological 
Department  of  the  Boston  University,  1882. 

The  literature  of  the  several  subjects  is  added  with  con- 
siderable fullness ;  one  reason  being  that  American  and  Eng- 
lish readers  have  less  acquaintance  with  this  department  of 
missionary  literature  than  with  many  others.  As  the  Mora- 
vian missions  are  conducted  chiefly  by  Germans,  it  is  natural 
that  various  authorities  in  their  language  should  appear  in 
the  list.  The  works  cited  differ  greatly  in  value ;  but  by 
an  ample  citation  the  author  desires  to  aid  inquirers  who 
may  wish  to  go  over  the  same  ground,  hi  part  or  wholly, 
which  he  has  himself  traversed.  A  perusal  of  these  works, 
or  any  considerable  portion  of  them,  can  hardly  fail  to  foster 
the  sentiment  of  Count  Zinzendorf:  "The  whole  earth  is 
the  Lord's ;  men's  souls  are  his ;  I  am  debtor  to  all." 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE  L    THE  MORAVIANS.    PAGES  3-37. 

Herrnhut  —  The  Cemetery  —  Berthelsdorf  —  Evening  Service  — 
Doctrinal  Belief — Church  Polity  —  Three  Orders — Disci- 
pline and  Spirit  —  Ritual  —  Church  Festivals  —  Education 

—  Bohemia  —  Early  Martyrs  —  Seventeenth  Century  Perse- 
cution —  Comenius  —  Revival  —  The  Exodus  —  Founding  of 
Herrnhut  —  Providential  Designs. 

LECTURE  II.    COUNT  ZINZENDORF.    PAGES  41-75. 

Great  Men  —  Zinzendorf 's  Parentage  —  Early  Piety  —  Academic 
Course  —  Early  Travels  —  Choice  of  Position  —  Counselor 
and  Organizer  —  Ordination  and  Ministry  —  Sifting  Period 

—  Zinzendorf  and  Wesley  —  Authorship  —  Characteristics 
and   Habits  —  Misunderstood    and    Calumniated  —  Ruling 
Motives  —  Early   Missionary  Interest  —  Matured  Interest 

—  First  Mission  —  Titled  Christians. 

LECTURE  in.    MISSION  TO  THE  WEST  INDIES.    PAGES  79-123. 

Dober  and  Nitschmann  —  West  India  Islands  —  St.  Thomas  — 
Self-support  —  Imprisonment  —  Hindrances  —  St.  Croix  — 
Mortality  —  Cornelius  —  St.  John  —  Jamaica  —  Mistakes  — 
Spiritual  Fruits  —  Emancipation  —  St.  Christopher's  —  An- 
tigua —  The  Gospel  Efficient  —  Barbados  —  Tobago  —  Slav- 
ery —  Moravian  Philanthropy. 

LECTURE  IV.    MISSIONS  to   SOUTH  AND  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 
PAGES  127-171. 

Guiana  —  The  Inhabitants  —  Beginnings  in  Berbice  —  Opposi- 
tion —  On  the  Saramacca  —  On  the  Corentyne  —  Bush  Ne- 

(vii) 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

groes  —  Arabi  —  Bambey  —  Two  Tropbies  —  Sommelsdyke 

—  Present  Condition  —  Existing  Embarrassments  —  Individ- 
ual Cases  —  Mosquito  Coast  —  Inhabitants  —  Government 

—  The  Mission  —  Caribbean   Sea  —  Moral  Devastation  — 
Slave  Trade  —  Amelioration. 

LECTURE  V.    MISSION  TO  GREENLAND.    PAGES  175-213. 

Zinzendorf  at  Copenhagen  —  Offer  and  Acceptance  —  Outset  — 
Greenland  —  Icebergs  —  The  Eskimos  —  Their  Language  — 
Habits  and  Character  —  Religion  —  Moravian  Beginnings  — 
Scarcity  —  First  Conversion  —  Power  of  the  Cross  —  Spirit- 
ual Coincidences  —  Spiritual  Experience  —  Moral  Earnest- 
ness —  Gratifying  Tokens  —  Privation  and  Peril  —  Statis- 
tics and  Results. 

LECTURE  VI.    MISSION  TO  LABRADOR.    PAGES  217-263. 

The  Country  —  Nascopies  and  Eskimos  —  Ehrhardt  —  Jens  Ha- 
ven —  Mikak  —  Permanent  Establishment  —  Embarrass- 
ments —  Personal  Perils  —  Literature  —  Converts  —  Female 
Converts  —  Other  Classes  —  Revivals  —  Statistics  and  Re- 
sults —  Hindrances  —  The  Missionaries  —  Missionary  Navi- 
gation —  The  Harmony  —  The  Eskimo  Future. 

LECTURE    VII.      MISSIONS     TO    NORTH-AMERICAN    INDIANS. 
PAGES  267-305. 

The  Aborigines  —  Their  Language  —  Religion  —  Early  Missions 

—  Moravians  in  Georgia  —  At  Shekomeko  —  In  Connecticut 

—  Bauishment — In  Pennsylvania  —  Algonquins  and  Iroquois 

—  Mission  to  the  Delawares  —  Homes  of  Missionaries  — 
Heckewelder  —  Zeisberger  —  Hardships  and  Dangers  —  Lit- 
erary Labors. 

LECTURE    VIII.      NORTH-AMERICAN    INDIANS  —  CONCLUDED. 
PAGES  309-341. 

Distinguished  Visitors  —  Progress  in  Civilization  —  Religious  Re- 
vivals —  Native  Assistants  —  Heathen  Preachers  —  Power 
of  Truth  —  Christian  Living  —  Culminating  Period  —  Indian 
Character  —  Numerous  Removals  —  Massacres  —  Slaughter 
at  Gna/ienhiitten  —  Re'sume' —  Later  Labors. 


CONTENTS.  ix 

LECTURE  IX.    MISSIONS  TO  SOUTH  AFEICA.    PAGES  845-377. 

The  Continent  of  Africa  —  Dilatory  Development  —  Slavery  — 
Primitive  Christianity — The  Moravian  Schmidt  — The  Hot- 
tentots —  The  Solitary  Missionary  —  Dutch  Administration 

—  Schmidt  Expelled  —  Mission  Eenewed  —  Opposition  Re- 
newed —  Growth  —  Experiences  of    Converts  —  Christian 
Deportment. 

LECTUEE  X.    SOUTH  AFEICA  —  CONCLUDED.    PAGES  381-411. 

South  Africa  —  Features,  Productions  —  Karroos  —  Outside  Wit- 
nesses —  Lazar  House  —  The  Bushmen  —  Commandoes  — 
Western  Mission  —  Kafir  Tribes  —  Eastern  Mission  —  "  Irre- 
claimable Savages  "  —  Results  —  Hostile  Critics  —  Mere  Civ- 
ilization —  Patient  Waiting. 

LECTUBB  XL    MISSION  TO  AUSTEALIA.    PAGES  415-451. 

Australia  —  The  Flora  —  The  Fauna  —  Colonization  —  Aborig- 
ines —  Their  Language  and  Social  Grade  —  Moravian  Be- 
ginnings —  Ebenezer  and  Ramahyuck  —  Special  Hindrances 

—  Other  Missions  —  Failures  Unavoidable — Decay  of  Abo- 
rigines —  Christianization    Effected  —  Civilization    Inade- 
quate —  Not  Doomed. 

LECTUEE  XII.    RESUME  AND  CHAEACTEEISTICS.    PAGES  456- 
488. 

Mission  in  Thibet  —  Unsuccessful  Missions  —  The  Diaspora — In 
Bohemia  —  Early  Evangelistic  Spirit  —  An  Integral  Ele- 
ment —  Growth  —  Aims  and  Methods  —  Comity  —  Readiness 
for  Service  —  Unostentatious  Habits  —  Cheerfulness  —  Fru- 
gality —  Literary  Labors  —  Devotional  Habits  —  Providen- 
tial Preservation  —  Aid  and  Estimates — Influence  of  Ex- 
ample. 

LlTEBATUEE  OF  THE  SUBJECTS.     PAGES  491-610. 


LECTURE   I. 

THE  MORAVIANS. 


THE  MORAVIANS. 


THE  MORAVIANS  —  who  are  they,  and  where 
are  they  found? 

We  betake  ourselves  to  Central  Europe.  A 
train  from  Dresden,  on  the  Saxon-Silesian  rail- 
way, soon  brings  us  into  Upper  Lusatia.  Thirty 
miles,  and  we  are  at  Bautzen,  where  Napoleon 
repulsed  the  allied  and  Prussian  forces  in  1813. 
Seven  miles  farther  on  we  pass  the  village  of 
Hochkirch,  where  one  of  the  bloodiest  engage- 
ments in  the  wars  of  Frederick  the  Great  was 
fought  (1758).  At  Lobau,  still  farther  east,  a 
branch  line  diverges  southward,  and  we  soon 
reach  the  place  of  our  destination,  about  fifty 
miles  from  Dresden.  Herrnhut,  the  denomina- 
tional centre  of  the  United  Brethren,  is  a  village 
of  only  one  thousand  inhabitants,  an  abode  of 
order,  simplicity  and  neatness.  An  almost  Sab- 
bath quiet  pervades  the  place.  The  style  of 
building  is  uniform  and  unostentatious;  every- 
thing indeed  is  plain ;  everywhere,  however,  are 
tokens  of  comfort,  but  no  signs  of  abject  poverty. 
We  visit  the  Brethren's  House,1  a  building  set 

1  An  inscription  over  the  outside  door  reads :  Das  erste  Haus 
von  Herrnhut;  erbaut  im  Jahre  1722. 

(3) 


4  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.  i 

apart  for  unmarried  male  members  of  the  Com- 
munity, where  thirty  of  them  have  a  comfortable 
home,  with  a  large  apartment  for  morning  and 
evening  worship.  Here  too  are  facilities  for  man- 
ual labor.  We  find  several  aged  and  disabled 
missionaries  returned  from  foreign  service.  We 
next  visit  the  Sisters'  House,  a  larger  and  more 
imposing  establishment,  where  are  a  hundred 
unmarried  women,  devoting  themselves  to  vari- 
ous kinds  of  industry,  especially  needlework. 
Great  neatness  and  cheerfulness  reign  here.  Do 
these  establishments  suggest  the  thought  of  mon- 
asticism  ?  If  so,  it  is  an  unauthorized  suggestion ; 
for  no  vows  are  taken,  and  there  is  entire  liberty 
on  the  part  of  inmates,  to  withdraw  whenever 
they  please,  the  arrangement  being  purely  social 
and  economical. 

Turning  to  the  Manor  House,  a  spacious  build- 
ing that  holds  the  Archives,  we  are  shown  through 
a  suite  of  rooms  hung  with  portraits  of  distin- 
guished Moravians;  where  also  is  the  Library 
containing  an  accumulation  of  manuscript  treas- 
ures, among  which  are  about  eight  thousand 
biographies  of  deceased  members  of  the  Moravian 
community.  Here  is  a  manuscript  volume  *  in 
John  Huss's  handwriting,  well  on  toward  five 

1  We  shall  also  be  shown  an  old  Hebrew  Bible  once  belong- 
ing to  Luther,  which  Zinzendorf  obtained  at  Wittenberg,  and  in 
which  are  placed  sundry  manuscripts  of  Luther,  Melancthon 
(who  here  spells  his  name  Melanchios),  Bugenhagen,  Cruciger, 
and  other  Reformers,  written  in  Latin,  Greek  and  Hebrew. 


LECT.  i.]  THE  CEMETERY.  5 

hundred  years  old,  and  other  valuable  works  in 
the  Bohemian  language. 

A  shaded  avenue  takes  us  to  the  Cemetery. 
Over  the  entrance,  on  the  outside,  is  this  inscrip- 
tion :  "  Jesus  is  risen  from  the  dead ; "  and  on  the 
inside,  "  He  is  become  the  first  fruits  of  them  that 
sleep."  The  nearest  grave  on  the  left  is  that  of 
Christian  David,  whose  name  has  an  honored  place 
in  Moravian  history.  The  memorial  stones,  fac- 
ing the  east,  small  and  recording  only  names  and 
dates,  lie  in  straight  lines,  flat  upon  the  ground, 
as  in  all  other  Moravian  places  of  burial,  like  Jew- 
ish gravestones  in  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  and 
like  those  around  the  Cathedral  in  Glasgow.  The 
hill,  on  the  slope  of  which  this  shaded  "  Court  of 
Peace  "  is  situated,  bears  the  name  of  Hutberg, 
whose  summit  is  a  rock  crowned  with  an  observa- 
tory. From  that  commanding  point  one  enjoys  a 
wide  view  over  the  Moravian  domain,  and  south- 
ward far  away  to  the  rampart  of  mountains  which 
separates  this  land  of  Protestant  freedom  from  the 
territory  of  intolerant  Austria. 

Close  by  the  base- of  the  Hutberg  runs  an  ave- 
nue from  the  village  of  Herrnhut  to  Berthelsdorf, 
lined  with  linden  trees,  the  foliage  so  dense  that 
the  sun  can  scarcely  shine  through.  We  will  pass 
down  that  charming  slope  of  a  thousand  feet  in 
the  mile,  which  brings  us  to  the  hamlet  of  Berth- 
elsdorf. We  visit  the  large  stone  building  which  is 
now  the  official  residence  of  several  members  of  the 


6  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLECT.  i. 

Elders'  Conference,  one  apartment  serving  as  their 
chapel  for  daily  services ;  another  as  their  Council 
Chamber,  hung  with  portraits  of  men  eminent  in 
the  Unitas  Fratrum.  There,  around  a  table,  they 
hold  not  less  than  three  sessions  every  week. 
Scores  of  letters  are  received  weekly  from  differ- 
ent quarters  of  the  world,  and  the  interests  of  the 
whole  body,  particularly  of  their  foreign  missions, 
are  discussed.  Here  is  the  center  and  head  of  the 
Moravians.  One  department  of  the  Board  man- 
ages the  educational  work,  elementary,  collegiate 
and  theological;  another  conducts  the  various 
financial  undertakings,  trades  and  the  like,  which 
help  to  support  the  church  work ;  a  third  has 
specially  to  do  with  foreign  missions;  and  a  fourth 
is  practically  charged  with  the  spiritual  interests 
of  the  communion. 

We  would  not  leave  this  village  of  Berthelsdorf 
without  paying  our  respects  to  members  of  the 
Elders'  Conference,  at  their  unpretending  and 
well  ordered  homes.  Here,  for  instance,  is  Bishop 
Crb'ger,  author  of  a  history  of  the  Ancient  Unitas 
Fratrum,  in  two  volumes,  and  the  history  of  the 
Renewed  Church,  in  three  volumes,  the  latest  and 
most  valuable  of  that  class  of  Moravian  works.1 
Near  by  is  Bishop  Levin  Theodore  Reichel,2  one  of 

1  A  yet  more  scholarly  and  elaborate  work  in  that  depart- 
ment is  now  in  preparation  by  Bishop  Edmund  de  Schweinitz, 
of  Bethlehem,  Pa. 

2  Since  deceased. 


I-BCT.IO  EVENING   SERVICE.  7 

the  three  men  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  bear- 
ing this  name,  and  holding  the  same  office,  a  native 
of  Pennsylvania,  the  first  editor  of  the  American 
Tract  Society's  Crerman  Messenger,  who  has 
executed  the  drawings,  maps  and  valuable  mis- 
sionary atlas  illustrating  the  Brethren's  foreign 
work.  Other  able  and  excellent  men  are  in  the 
neighborhood.  The  manners  of  the  place  are  not 
marked  by  stiffness,  though  there  is  a  certain  ak 
of  formality  and  reserve.  The  Moravians  as  a 
body  share  in  the  emotional  temperament  of 
Southern  and  Middle  Germany.  They  exhibit  a 
sanctified  G-emiithlichkeit,  a  word  for  which  our 
temperament  and  our  language  hardly  supply  an 
exact  equivalent.  The  little  tinge  of  that  man- 
nerism which  has  helped  to  keep  them  in  due  sep- 
aration from  the  world,  and  has  helped  them  to 
maintain  their  integrity  of  sentiment  and  of  life, 
does  not  materially  check  the  cheery  ingenuous- 
ness of  social  intercourse.  Birthday  celebrations, 
for  example,  are  very  delightful.  The  German 
custom  of  salutation  at  meals,  before  sitting  down 
to  the  table  and  after  rising,  is  retained,  the  host 
and  hostess  giving  a  cordial  right  hand  and  a  cus- 
tomary good  wish.1 

Just  before  evening  the  bell  at  Herrnhut  strikes 
for  service  in  the  village  church,  and  we  take  our 
seats  there,  males  and  females  apart.  The  minis- 


habeni 


1  Ein  gesegnete  Mahlzeit!    and  Ich   wiinsche   wohl  gespeist  zu 
>en! 


8  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.I. 

ter  who  presides  commences,  at  least  he  did  on 
the  occasion  when  I  was  present,  with  Luther's 
famous  hymn  :  * 

"  A  castle  is  our  God,  a  tower, 
A  shield  and  trusty  weapon." 

Right  heartily  do  the  congregation  join  in  that 
grand  old  lyric.  Then  follows  an  account  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  the  Lutheran  Protestant 
Creed  of  thirty  articles  adopted  at  the  Diet  of 
Augsburg,  1530,  because  the  day,  June  25th,  is 
the  anniversary  of  that  event,  and  it  is  one  of  the 
Memorial  Days  usually  noticed  in  this  way  by  the 
Brethren. 

What  now  is  the  religious  belief  of  the  Unitas 
Fratrum?2  What  their  culture  and  characteris- 
tics ;  and  whence  came  they  ?  Only  in  the  light 
shed  from  these  points  can  we  rightly  read  the 
history  of  their  foreign  missions.  As  regards  doc- 
trinal belief,  they  have  repeatedly  avowed  their 
substantial  agreement  with  other  evangelical 

1  Ein'  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott, 
Ein'  gute  Wekr  und  Waffen. 

2  To  the  following  articles  of  belief  they  adhere  with  a  good 
deal  of  uniformity  and  firmness :  The  total  depravity  of  human 
nature ;  the  love  of  God  who  has  "  chosen  us  in  Christ  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world,"  and  "  who  gave  his  only  begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have 
everlasting  life  ; "  the  real  Godhead  and  real  manhood  of  Christ, 
through  whose  atonement  alone  we  receive  the  forgiveness  of 
sins;  the  Holy  Spirit  graciously  working  in  us  the  knowledge  of 
sin,  faith  in  Jesus,  and  the  witness  of  adoption ;  and  the  fruits  of 
faith,  indispensable  as  evidences  of  a  living  principle  within. 


MOT.  i.]  DOCTRINAL  BELIEF.  9 

churches.  Like  all  such  denominations  they 
accept  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  the  Word  of  God, 
the  sufficient  and  only  authoritative  rule  of  relig- 
ious faith  and  practice.  Moravian  literature, 
prose  as  well  as  poetry,  does  not  give  great  prom- 
inence to  the  demands  of  God's  law,  nor  to  future 
retribution ;  but  regarding  the  person  and  offices 
of  our  Redeemer  the  Moravian  pulpit  and  press 
are  commendably  full.  "  The  great  theme  of  our 
preaching,"  say  they,  "  is  Jesus  Christ,  in  whom 
we  have  the  grace  of  the  Son,  the  love  of  the 
Father,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  word  of  the  Cross,  which  bears  testimony  of 
Christ's  voluntary  offering  of  himself  to  suffer  and 
to  die,  and  of  the  rich  treasures  of  divine  grace 
thus  purchased,  is  the  beginning,  middle,  and  end 
of  our  preaching."  They  eschew  the  habit  of 
dogmatizing,  and  do  not  cultivate  theological 
acumen.  Controversy  and  abstruse  speculation 
on  religious  subjects  they  repudiate.  With  the 
exception  of  their  Easter  Morning  Litany,  con- 
taining merely  the  essential  truths  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  they  have  put  forth  no  formulated 
creed  of  their  own  to  which,  as  a  body,  they 
subscribe,  although  on  the  Continent  of  Europe, 
where  their  recognition  by  government  depends 
upon  a  creed,  they  declare  their  adhesion  to  the 
Augsburg  Confession  with  its  twenty-one  doc- 
trinal articles.  They  by  no  means  accept  all  the 
sentiments,  and  least  of  all  certain  vagaries  found 
in  the  writings  of  Count  Zinzendorf. 


10  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.I 

The  Unitas  Fratrum  is  a  wide-spread  confeder- 
ation, the  only  Protestant  church  that  subsists  as 
an  organic  unit  throughout  the  world.  In  its 
constitution  it  is  Presbyterio-Episcopal,  the  fun- 
damental principle  being  that  all  ecclesiastical 
affairs  are  collegiate,  or  conducted  by  boards. 
As  a  body  the  Moravians  are  governed  by  a 
General  Synod  which  meets  in  Herrnhut  at 
intervals  of  ten  years,  more  or  less,  their  last 
assemblage,  the  twenty-ninth,  having  been  held  in 
1879.  This  supreme  legislature  consists  of  the 
Unity's  officials,  the  Bishops  of  the  church,  nine 
delegates  from  each  provincial  Synod,  and  a  few 
representatives  from  their  foreign  missions.1  It 
legislates  on  matters  common  to  the  whole — the 
church's  constitution,  doctrine,  discipline  and 
foreign  missions.  Its  executive,  appointed  by 
election,  and  called  the  Unity's  Elders'  Confer- 
ence, carries  out  decisions,  and  exercises  general 
superintendence  during  the  intervals.  That  high- 
est executive  body  has  its  seat  at  Berthelsdorf,  the 
quiet  little  village  upon  which  we  looked  down 
from  the  Hutberg,  and  to  which  we  have  just  paid 
a  flying  visit. 

The  Unitas  Fratrum  is  divided  into  three  prov- 
inces—  the  Continental  or  German,  the  English, 
and  the  American,  which  are  governed  respect- 

1  There  is  a  General  Synod  Fund,  the  compound  interest  on 
which  accumulating  during  the  ten  years'  interval,  is  sufficient 
to  defray  all  expense*. 


MOT.  i.]  THEEE  ORDERS.  11 

ively  by  Provincial  Synods.  Not  unlike  the  re- 
lation of  States  in  our  Union  to  the  general  gov- 
ernment, the  provinces  are  independent  as  to  pro- 
vincial affairs,  but  intimately  confederate  as  to 
all  general  principles  of  belief,  practice,  and  for- 
eign missionary  work.  The  late  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell pronounced  the  constitution  of  the  Moravian 
Church  more  skillfully  and  wisely  balanced  than 
any  other  which  he  was  acquainted  with. 

The  three  orders,  Bishops,  Presbyters  and 
Deacons,  are  maintained ;  but  the  form  of  gov- 
ernment had  been  determined  before  the  epis- 
copate was  adopted,  and  this  additional  element 
wrought  no  change  as  regards  the  seat  of  power, 
or  the  administration.  Among  the  fundamental 
principles  laid  down  by  the  General  Synod  are 
these :  "  Our  episcopate,  as  such,  gives  no  sort  of 
claim  to  government  in  general,  or  to  that  of  any 
congregation  in  particular ;  nor  is  the  administra- 
tion of  dioceses  by  the  bishops  admissible."  The 
episcopate,  then,  is  spiritual  and  ministerial  alone ; 
Bishops  have  a  vote  at  General  and  Provincial 
Synods,  but  their  office  as  such  carries  with  it  no 
ruling  power  in  the  church,  their  special  function 
being  the  ordination  of  ministers.1  They  are  not 

1  At  the  same  time,  however,  they  are  almost  invariably 
members  of  the  governing  boards,  at  the  head  of  which  they 
stand  as  presidents,  presiding  also,  as  a  general  thing,  at  the 
synods.  Their  office,  moreover,  is  defined  to  be  "  in  a  peculiar 
sense,  that  of  '  intercessors  in  the  Church  of  God.' " 


12  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLKCT.I. 

lords,  but  brethren ;  and  that,  too,  in  the  matter 
of  salary  as  in  other  respects,  the  average  of  sala- 
ries being  low. 

Such  a  polity,  it  is  obvious,  differs  widely  from 
the  provincial  or  diocesan  episcopacy  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  and  the  Church  of  England.  Of 
the  numerous  men  who  have  held  this  office,  not 
one  has  ever  been  deposed,  or  been  charged  with 
any  flagrant  offense.  The  Brethren's  episcopate, 
received  by  them  in  1735,  came  through  a  small 
branch  of  the  Waldensian  Church,  formerly  in 
Austria.1  Although  the  office  remained  quiescent 
at  one  period  for  thirty-two  years,  and  although 
the  thread  of  perpetuity  became  extremely  tenu- 
ous, yet  it  seems  to  have  remained  unbroken,  and 
has  at  times  served  a  good  purpose.2  This  is  the 
oldest  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  existence ; 


1  The  Waldenses  of  more  western  Europe  never  laid  claim  to 
apostolic  succession. 

2  For  a  long  time  the  episcopate  was  maintained  merely  for 
the  sake  of  keeping  up  the  succession,  although  no  opportunity 
existed  for  exercising  the  functions  of  the  office.    A  visible 
organization  of  the  church  had  ceased.    The  first  Bishop  of  the 
Renewed  Unity's  Church  was  ordained  (1735)  by  Daniel  Ernestus 
Jablonsky,  D.D.,   Court  Preacher  at  Berlin,  Counselor  of  the 
Royal  Consistory,  Church  Counselor,  and  President  of  the  Royal 
Academy  of  Sciences.    He  was  a  grandson  of  Comeuius.    The 
ordination  took  place  with  the  concurrence,  by  letter,  of  Sitko- 
vius,  a  Bishop  of  the  Polish  Brethren,  and  with  the  royal  con- 
sent.   Only  two  persons  were  present  to  witness  the  act.    Of  the 
one  hundred  and  ten  Bishops  of  the  Renewed  Church,  about 
twelve  have  been  from  artisan  or  other  humble  positions. 


LKCT.I.]  DISCIPLINE  AND   SPIRIT.  13 

but  as  regards  their  episcopate,  the  Moravians  are 
singularly  free  from  assumption ;  they  do  not 
question  the  validity  of  Presbyterian  ordination ; 
the  succession  which  they  most  value  is  that  of 
apostolic  truth,  spirit  and  labors ;  and  they  give 
marked  prominence  to  the  sole  headship  of  Jesus 
Christ  over  the  church  in  all  her  proceedings. 

Like  the  Fathers  of  New  England,  the  Unitas 
Fratrum  have,  for  the  most  part,  upheld  a  script- 
ural discipline,  maintaining  that  adhesion  to  a 
creed  is  not  enough,  but  insisting  upon  evidence 
of  personal  piety  as  a  condition  of  church  mem- 
bership.1 High  commendation  is  due  to  them  for 
taking  such  ground,  and  so  early,  on  the  Conti- 
nent, where  connection  with  state  churches  had 
long  been  and  still  is  a  matter  of  course.  In  this 
respect  the  United  Brethren,  under  their  old 
regime  as  well,  were  greatly  in  advance  of  the 
German  and  Swiss  Reformers,  not  chronologically 
alone,  but  also  in  the  firmness  with  which  they 
demanded  purity  of  life  as  a  test  of  discipleship. 
So  pronounced  were  they  in  their  communications 
to  Luther  that  he  took  offense.  At  that  time  he 
needed  a  rebuke  ;  upon  further  acquaintance  he 

1 "  It  has  been  from  the  beginning,  and  must  ever  remain,  a 
matter  of  serious  concern  on  the  part  of  the  Brethren's  Church, 
that  every  individual  member  of  the  church  should  be  a  true 
Christian.  For  this  it  is  necessary  that  the  soul  be  brought  to 
an  increasingly  deep  and  thorough  knowledge  of  its  sin  and 
misery,  of  its  worthiness  of  damnation,  and  of  its  need  of 
redemption."  Results  of  General  Synod  of  1879. 


14  MOKAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.I. 

felt  differently,  and  had  the  grace  to  acknowledge 
his  mistake.1  "  Since  the  days  of  the  apostles," 
he  wrote,  "  there  has  existed  no  church,  which  in 
her  doctrines  and  rites  has  more  nearly  approxi- 
mated to  the  spirit  of  that  age,  than  the  Bohemian 
Brethren.  Although  they  do  not  exceed  us  in 
purity  of  doctrine,  for  all  the  articles  of  faith  are 
taught  by  us  plainly  and  clearly  according  to  the 
Word  of  God,  yet  they  do  excel  us  in  the  observ- 
ance of  regular  discipline,  whereby  they  blessedly 
rule  their  congregations,  and  in  this  respect  they 
are  more  deserving  of  praise  than  we."  Their 
Renewed  Church,  during  most  of  the  last  century, 
and  at  the  present  time  also,  deserves  praise  on 
the  score  of  exemplary  living.  No  other  religious 
denomination,  as  a  whole  and  for  so  long  a  period, 
has  maintained  a  moral  and  social  character  more 
unimpeachable.  I  do  not  learn  that  an  instance 
of  capital  crime  or  of  divorce  has  ever  been  known 
among  them. 

As  a  body  they  exhibit  a  childlike,  cheerful 
piety,  which,  with  its  accompanying  avoidance  of 
noise  and  ostentation,  seems,  in  a  good  measure, 
to  realize  the  true  conception  of  primitive  Chris- 


1  Martin  Bucer  also  wrote  (1540)  to  the  Brethren:  "I  am 
persuaded  that  you  alone  are  they  that  at  this  day  are  found  in 
all  the  world,  amongst  whom  only  flourishes  a  sound  doctrine, 
with  pure,  wholesome,  edifying  discipline."  "  Truly  we  are  much 
ashamed  of  ourselves  when  we  compare  at  any  time  our  church 
Itith  this  of  yours." 


LECT.  i.]  KITUAL.  15 

tiari  character.  In  their  renunciation  of  worldly 
vanities  they  exhibit  simplicity  unattended  by 
asceticism.  I  am  not  aware  that  any  other  mod- 
ern Christian  community  have  habitually,  and  for 
a  lengthened  period,  more  completely  blended 
quiet  religious  earnestness  with  a  joyous  dis- 
charge of  the  common  affairs  of  life.  At  their 
outset  it  was  an  aim,  and  to  some  good  degree 
that  aim  has  been  kept  up,  to  make  all  duties  and 
all  labor  serve  the  purpose  of  spiritual  refresh- 
ment. Their  inner  life,  like  that  of  their  founder, 
is  largely  fed  by  sacred  song;  they  have  many 
fine  chorals,  some  of  them  ancient,  and  also  an 
abundance  of  hymns  —  cradle  hymns,  hymns  for 
traveling,  and,  before  the  distaff  became  obsolete, 
spinning  hymns.  A  blessing  is  often  asked  in  the 
form  of  a  verse  sung  at  the  table.  But  affluence 
rather  than  high  poetic  merit  characterizes  their 
hymnology.  One  of  the  compilations  prepared  by 
Zinzendorf  embraces  over  two  thousand  (2,169) 
sacred  lyrics  designed  for  public  use. 

Their  Ritual  is  marked  by  comparative  brevity 
and  a  limited  number  of  formularies.  Changes 
too  are  made  from  time  to  time,  but  only  by 
authority  of  the  General  Synod.  For  the  morn- 
ing service  of  the  Lord's  Day  there  is  a  prescribed 
Litany,  but  in  other  than  Sabbath  morning  ser- 
vices extempore  prayer  is  offered.  For  burial, 
marriage,  baptism,  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  there 
are  prescribed  forms ;  and  for  the  church  seasons 


16  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LBCT.I. 

elaborate  liturgical  services,  especially  in  the 
German  language.  Love  Feasts,  suggested  by 
the  primitive  Agapae,  are  maintained,  with  sym- 
bols of  family  fellowship  among  Christians.  In- 
deed, the  fraternal  sentiment  and  bond  are  pecu- 
liarly strong;  their  universal  motto  would  seem 
to  be :  "  Together  do  we  pray,  labor,  suffer, 
rejoice."  ' 

And  here  it  may  be  remarked,  that  during  one 
third  of  a  century  from  the  date  of  their  gather- 
ing at  Herrnhut,  the  period  of  their  greatest 
denominational  aggressiveness,  and  before  their 
religious  views  and  usages  had  fully  crystallized, 
there  was,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases,  comparative 
crudeness  in  their  conceptions,  and  notwithstand- 
ing an  element  of  quietism,  there  was  what  out- 
siders pronounced  a  certain  air  of  self-assertion. 
That  was  inevitable.  Their  continental  colonies, 
not  to  refer  to  others,  planted  in  the  midst  of 
arrogant  confessionalism,  and  the  cold  Lutheran 
orthodoxy  of  that  day,  were  little  fountains  of 
spiritual  life  —  conscious,  vigorous  life.  They  had 
a  mission ;  it  was  to  awaken,  to  foster,  to  con- 
serve the  elements  of  vital  Christianity  wherever 
found.  Each  individual  member,  and  each  col- 
lective community  was  deemed,  nor  wholly  with- 
out reason,  peculiarly  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
a  tabernacle  where  the  crucified  One  manifested 

1  In  commune  oramus,  in  commune  laboramus,  in  commune 
patimur,  in  commune  gaudemus. 


IBCT.IO  CHUECH  FESTIVALS.  17 

himself  in  special  intimacy.  To  profess  that, 
among  the  frigid  and  unsympathizing,  was  of 
course  to  provoke  the  charge  of  assumption, 
enthusiasm,  fanaticism.  They  were  an  emotional 
people ;  and  undue  emotional  indulgence  would 
sometimes  degenerate,  as  it  everywhere  will,  into 
sentimentality. 

The  Moravians  observe  the  chief  festivals  of 
the  Christian  year,  as  well  as  Memorial  Days, 
days  noteworthy  in  their  own  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory ;  and  furthermore,  the  annual  festivals  of 
the  various  choirs,  or  classes  of  the  congregation. 
Christinas  is  a  most  joyous  occasion ;  the  night- 
watch  universally  closes  the  year.  Passion  week 
is  celebrated  chiefly  by  the  public  reading  of  a 
harmonized  account  from  the  Gospels,  of  our 
Saviour's  last  days  on  earth,  interspersed  with 
the  singing  of  appropriate  stanzas.  No  other 
church-  surpasses  tJbja^Mprayian  iju..th<s i -  jubilant 
character,  oi.  Easter  services.  It  is  the  custom  in 
their  villages  for  a  procession  with  trombones, 
a  favorite  instrument,  to  awake  the  inhabitants 
before  daybreak  by  an  Easter  morning  choral. 
An  early  matin  service  is  held ;  and  after  that 
they  go  to  the  cemetery  in  season  to  meet  the  ris- 
ing sun.  Nothing  can  be  more  impressive  than 
this  devoutly  joyful  observance.  A  special  Easter 
Litany  is  used ;  and  no  body  of  Christians  have  a 
more  exultant  belief  in  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead.  There,  amidst  the  graves  of  a  multitude 

2 


18  MOEAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.I. 

who  have  fallen  asleep  in  Jesus,  the  prayer  goes 
up  :  "  Keep  us  in  everlasting  fellowship  with  our 
brethren  and  with  our  sisters  who  have  entered 
into  the  joy  of  their  Lord  ;  also  with  the  servants 
and  handmaids  of  our  church,  whom  thou  hast 
called  home  in  the  past  year,  and  with  the  whole 
church  triumphant."  The  closing  ascription  is 
rendered :  "  Glory  be  to  Him  who  is  the  Resur- 
rection and  the  Life ;  He  was  dead,  and  behold 
He  is  alive  for  evermore.  And  he  that  believeth 
in  Him,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live. 
Glory  be  to  Him  in  the  church  which  waiteth  for 
Him,  and  in  that  which  is  around  him,  forever 
and  ever.  Amen."  The  effective  accompani- 
ment of  trombones  lends  grandeur  to  the  service, 
and  seems  to  anticipate  the  voice  of  the  archangel 
and  the  trump  of  God. 

The  United  Brethren  have  done  much  in  the 
line  of  education.  This  was  true  during  their 
earlier  era.  The  last  of  their  bishops  of  the 
Moravian  Province,  John  Amos  Comenius  (Kom- 
ensky),  through  his  numerous  and  valuable  writ- 
ings on  the  subject,  enjoyed  a  European  reputa- 
tion. His  work,  Janua  linguarum  reserata,  a  new 
method  of  teaching  languages  (1631),  had  a  re- 
markable popularity,  being  translated  into  twelve 
European  tongues  and  into  more  than  one  Asiatic 
tongue  —  the  Turkish  and  Arabic.  Orbis  Pictus 
by  him  has  not  even  yet  passed  out  of  use,  and 
his  works  number  over  ninety.  He  was  a  pioneer 


WOT.  i.]  EDUCATION.  19 

in  advocating  the  equal  education  of  the  sexes, 
the  system  of  object  teaching,  the  necessity  of 
physical  training,  and  the  importance  of  aiming 
to  develope  the  whole  human  being.  His  ser- 
vices were  sought  for  in  Poland,  Sweden,  and 
England ;  and  no  educator  of  that  day  achieved 
such  celebrity.  Through  the  negotiation  of  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop,  of  Massachusetts,  during  his 
travels  in  the  Low  Countries,  Comenius  was  at 
one  time  on  the  point  of  becoming  President 
of  Harvard  College,  but  through  the  influence  of 
the  Swedish  ambassador,  his  steps  were  turned  in 
another  direction.1  A  man  so  much  respected  for 
learning  and  religious  character  would  make  his 
impress  on  education  among  the  Brethren  of  the 
Renewed  Church.  They  are  not  deficient  in 
theological  seminaries,2  there  being  one  such  in 
each  of  the  three  provinces  —  the  one  at  Bethle- 
hem, Pennsylvania,  having  been  established  the 
same  year  as  that  of  Andover  (1807).  Infant  and 
parochial  schools  are  well  administered,  but  their 
boarding-schools  have  become  famous.  The  first 
was  opened  at  Neuwied  on  the  Rhine  (1756)  ;  and 
there  are  now  fifty-one,  four  of  them  in  the  United 
States.  The  seminary  for  girls  at  Bethlehem, 
Pennsylvania,  opened  in  1749  —  converted  into 
a  boarding-school  thirty-four  years  later  (1783) — 

1  Mather's  Magnolia,  Book  IV. 

2  In  Prussia  at  Gnadeafeld,  in  England  at  Fairfield  near 
Manchester. 


20  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.I. 

takes  rank,  in  order  of  time,  before  all  other  enter- 
prises for  female  education  this  side  the  Atlantic. 
Glancing  at  the  catalogues  of  institutions  so  recent 
as  most  of  ours,  the  eye  lingers  with  some  degree 
of  surprise  on  one  for  1881,  its  title-page  announc- 
ing the  "one  hundred  and  thirty-second  scholas- 
tic year." J  In  Moravian  schools  we  find  a  sensible 
and  thorough  course,  with  no  excess  of  mental 
stimulus ;  a  healthful  religious  atmosphere ;  a 
supervision  of  pupils  that  is  kind  and  indefatiga- 
ble, no  one  being  left  without  teacher  or  guard- 
ian day  or  night.  The  pupils  at  these  excellent 
seminaries  are  largely  from  outside  the  denomina- 
tion.2 

Although  Moravian  communities  are  well  edu- 
cated, it  is  not  authorship  but  edification  and 
unobtrusive  action  which  have  been  their  aim. 


1  The  Moravian  Female  Seminary  at  Salem,  North  Carolina, 
was  opened  in  1804. 

2  The  Baroness  Bunsen  remarks :  "  The  Moravian  training 
has  left  a  blessing  behind  it  — '  some  kindly  gleam  of  love  and 
prayer'  —  'to  soften  every  cross  and  care' — impressions  of  the 
love  of  God  and  man,  of  devotional  charity  which  intercourse 
with  the  world  could  not  efface,  and  which  in  the  cool  of  soli- 
tude could  revive  ;  and  lawful,  correct  notions  of  Christian  doc- 
trine and  of  man's  duty  and  calling.    These  are  the  positive  advan- 
tages which  I  have  seen  and  known  to  be  the  fruits  of  Moravian 
education,  though  there  may  be  cases  in  which  such  have  not 
been  its  results.    The  negative,  and  yet  important,  advantages 
consist  in  extreme  simplicity  of  habits  of  life,  and  the  absence 
of  all  attention  to  mere  matters  of  vanity."    Life  and  Letters,  II, 
95. 


MOT.  i.]  EDUCATION.  21 

Beyond  sacred  lyrics  and  missionary  publications 
their  contributions  to  literature  have  not  been 
large ;  though  science  is  now  and  then  indebted 
to  the  Unity.1  Men  born  and  bred  among  the 
Moravians  have  sometimes  passed  into  other  com- 
munions and  there  distinguished  themselves. 
Such  were  Fries,  the  philosopher,  Novalis  (Von 
Hardenburg),  philosopher,  poet,  and  mystic,  and 
Dr.  von  Zeschwitz,  a  professor  at  Erlangen.2 
Schleiermacher's  early  education  was  at  a  psedi- 
gogium  of  the  Brethren,  and  he  never  ceased  to 
feel  the  happy  influence  of  his  training  while 
there.  Eminent  German  professors  have,  through 
Moravian  influence,  been  brought  to  a  saving 
knowledge  of  the  truth.  Hengstenberg,  of  Ber- 
lin, began  his  official  life  as  a  decided  rationalist ; 
he  attended  a  religious  service  among  the  United 
Brethren,  became  deeply  impressed,  betook  him- 
self to  the  study  of  the  Bible,  and  came  forth  a 
champion  of  evangelical  Christianity.  Olshausen 
too  began  as  a  rationalist ;  would  taunt  Tholuck 


1  Lewis  David  de  Schweinitz,  for  instance,  a  former  divine  at 
Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania,  two  of  whose  sons  became  Bishops  of 
the  American  Province,  was  an  eminent  naturalist,  and  distin- 
guished  himself  in  certain  recondite  branches  of  botany.     He 
gave  an  impulse  especially  to  the  study  of  American  Fungi,  in 
which  department  he  added  about  twelve  hundred  species. 

2  In  our  country,  Dr.  Ernest  L.  Haselius,  a  leading  professor 
and  an  author  of  note   among   Southern  Lutherans,  and   Dr. 
Joseph  T.  Berg,  son  of  a  Moravian  missionary  in  Antigua,  a 
champion  of  Protestantism. 


22  MOEAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.I. 

for  being  a  pietist  and  Hermh utter;  but  the  read- 
ing of  the  Life  of  Count  Zinzendorf  was  blessed  to 
his  conversion. r 

It  becomes  an  historical  requirement  that  we 
look  at  the  earlier,  the  furnace  period  of  the 
United  Brethren,  and  their  exodus  from  the 
house  of  bondage.  I  must  then  invite  you  to 
accompany  me  to  Hochwald,2  in  the  range  of  the 
Riesen-Gebirge,  "  Giant  Mountains,"  where  we 
shall  find  a  summit-house  like  that  on  our  Mt. 
Washington.  Here  are  the  confines  of  the  great 
Sclavonic  family  of  nations  which,  with  their 
eighty  millions,  people  the  eastern  portion  of 
Europe.  We  are  standing  on  an  elevated  crest 
that  encompasses  the  Bohemian  basin.  From 
the  sides  of  the  mountain  ranges  enclosing  this 
irregular  square,  the  streams  flow  toward  the 
center,  and  unite  to  form  the  river  Elbe,  which, 
breaking  through  the  mountain  wall,  pursues  its 
course  of  five  hundred  miles  to  the  German  Ocean. 
By  numerous  rivers,  and  by  its  twenty  thousand 
ponds,  the  country  is  well  watered ;  it  has  a  fair 
share  of  fertile  lands;  it  has  mineral  wealth;  it 
has  mineral  springs  —  those  of  Carlsbad,  Marien- 
bad,  Toplitz,  and  Seidlitz  are  famous.  We  are 

1  Life  of  Charles  Hodge,  129,  134. 

2  One  hundred  miles  to  the  east  is  Breslau,  the  capital  of 
Silesia,  forty  or  more  miles  westward  lies  Dresden,  the  capital 
of  Saxony,  and  sixty  miles  southward  is  Prague,  the  capital  of 
Bohemia. 


LECT.I.]  EARLY  MARTYRS.  23 

looking  down  upon  the  chief  center  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War;  also  on  the  seat  of  the  war  of  1865, 
and  our  eye  detects  the  memorable  neighborhood 
of  Koniggriitz.  We  are  gazing  upon  a  cradle  of 
the  great  German  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  which,  in  some  respects,  was  an  outcome 
from  the  pioneer  work  of  Bohemian  martyrs, 
almost  as  truly  as  the  noble  German  Elbe  has  its 
head  waters  here.  A  bigoted  type  of  Romanism 
reigns  within  this  girdle  of  hills.  Looking  back 
upon  the  history  of  Bohemia,  as  we  have  now, 
glanced  round  her  domain,  we  light  upon  dark 
chapters ;  we  read  of  bitter  hatred,  calumnies  and 
manifold  wrongs  heaped  upon  those  noble  men, 
John  Huss,  Jerome  of  Prague,  and  their  adher- 
ents, a  century  before  the  great  movement  under 
Luther,  Zwingle,  and  Knox.  In  the  war  that 
ensued  upon  the  martyrdom  at  Constance  (1415) 
and  in  later  persecutions,  we  read  of  unsurpassed 
insult  and  ferocity  exercised  upon  reformers  and 
reformed  before  and  since  the  Reformation.  One 
specimen  will  suffice.  A  captain  of  Jaromier 
broke  into  the  church  of  Kerezin  during  divine 
service ;  ordered  some  of  those  present  to  be 
massacred,  and  others  to  be  seized  as  prisoners. 
Then  taking  the  chalice  full  of  wine  from  the 
altar,  he  drank  to  the  health  of  his  horse,  and 
gave  him  also  to  drink,  saying  that  his  horse  even 
had  become  a  Utraquist.  Jesenius,  physician  and 
professor  in  the  University  of  Prague,  because  of 


24  MOBAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.L 

liis  becoming  ambassador  to  Hungary,  was  con- 
demned to  have  his  tongue  cut  out,  his  body 
quartered,  and  then  his  head  and  limbs  exposed. 
But,  so  the  historian  relates,  "  Through  the  ten- 
derness of  the  king,  after  having  his  tongue  cut 
out,  he  shall  first  be  beheaded  and  then  quar- 
tered." x  Tender-hearted  monarch ! 

It  was  at  the  village  of  Kunewalde,  about 
eighty  miles  from  Prague,  in  the  circuit  of  Konig- 
gratz,  on  the  northeastern  confines  of  Bohemia 
and  Silesia,  that  the  founding  of  the  ancient 
church  took  place  (1457),  though  it  assumed  a 
more  definite  form  ten  years  later  (1467}.  That 
was  sixty  years  before  the  famous  thesses  were 
nailed  to  the  door  of  the  Castle  church  at  Witten- 
berg. About  that  time,  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  the  proscribed  followers  pf  Huss  began  to 
call  one  another  by  the  title  of  Brethren,  first 
calling  themselves  Fratres  Legis  Christi;  but  as 
that  appellation  might  suggest  the  idea  of  a  mo- 
nastic order,  it  was  afterwards  exchanged  for 
Unitas  Fratrum,  and  was  assumed  on  account  of 
a  formal  union  (1457—60)  between  Moravians, 
Bohemians  and  Waldenses.  In  process  of  time 
they  came  to  be  known  as  the  church  of  the 
Bohemian  Brethren,  which,  after  generations  of 
trial,  and  a  season  of  apparent  extinction,  is  to 
reappear  as  the  present  Unitas  Fratrum.  Their 

*  The  Reformation  and  Anti-Reformation  in  Bohemia,  I,  18,  392. 


LBCT.I.]  EARLY  MAETYIIS.  25 

rugged  cradle  and  rigorous  Kindergarten  lay 
within  the  period  and  the  region  now  before  us. 
For  a  century  and  more  these  witnesses  to  the 
truth,  at  intervals  "had  trial  of  cruel  mockings 
and  scourgings,  yea,  moreover  of  bonds  and 
imprisonments;  they  wandered  in  mountains, 
and  in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth ; "  and  hence 
were  called  "  Pitmen  "  or  "  Burrowers."  Owing 
to  persecution,  many  fled  to  Poland ;  and  at  one 
time,  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  there 
were  three  confederate  provinces,  the  Bohemian, 
Moravian,  and  Polish,  as  now  there  are  the  Ger- 
man, English,  and  American.  Their  condition 
was  much  the  same  as  that  of  the  Vaudois  in 
Piedmont  and  the  Camisards  in  Southern  France. 
At  different  periods  you  may  see  them  gathering 
in  mountain  defiles  and  caverns,  amidst  the  intense 
cold  of  a  Bohemian  winter,  to  read  the  Holy 
Scriptures  around  camp-fires  which  they  do  not 
dare  to  kindle  by  day  lest  the  smoke  should  betray 
their  place  of  assembling.  On  the  way  to  such 
rendezvous  they  tread  one  in  the  steps  of  another, 
the  last  comer  fully  obliterating  the  tracks  with  a 
pine  branch  dragged  behind  him.  At  one  time 
six  men,  artisans  and  peasants,  are  brought  before 
Baron  von  Schwanberg.  A  priest  asks  them  if 
they  will  follow  him  as  spiritual  guide.  They 
answer:  "The  Shepherd  of  our  souls  is  Jesus 
Christ;"  and  they  arQ  led  out  to  execution.  At 
another  time  (1528),  two  brothers,  mechanics,  are 


26  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LTCT.I. 

conducted  to  the  stake  at  Prague.  "  As  the  Lord 
Jesus  has  suffered  such  cruel  pain  for  us,"  says 
one  of  them,  "  we  will  also  endure  this  death, 
rejoicing  that  we  are  counted  worthy  to  suffer  for 
the  Word  of  God."  "  Truly,"  replies  the  other, 
"  I  never  felt  such  joy  even  on  my  wedding  day 
as  now."  Seasons  of  relief  sometimes  occurred, 
and  occasionally  through  a  noticeable  interposi- 
tion. In  one  instance  the  Arch-Chancellor  of 
Bohemia  repaired  to  Vienna  (1563)  to  obtain  a 
decree  for  fresh  persecution.  His  importunity 
succeeded,  but  on  his  return  a  bridge  over  the 
Danube  sank  under  him ;  the  greater  part  of  his 
suite  were  drowned,  and  the  casket  which  con- 
tained the  fatal  decree  was  never  recovered.  Be- 
fore that  time  there  had  been  so  many  sudden 
deaths  of  powerful  enemies  of 'the  Gospel  as  to 
occasion  a  proverb  :  "  If  any  man  is  weary  of  life 
he  has  only  to  persecute  the  Brethren." 

At  the  time  of  the  Reformation  four  hundred 
churches,  with  a  membership  of  two  hundred 
thousand,  might  be  found  in  Bohemia  and  Mora- 
via. In  one  of  the  synodical  gatherings  there 
were  present,  besides  ecclesiastics,  seventeen  of 
the  most  distinguished  barons  of  Bohemia,  and 
one  hundred  and  forty-six  nobles  of  inferior  rank. 
Printing-presses  were  busy  in  multiplying  copies 
of  the  Bohemian  Bible,  catechism,  hymn-books 
and  theological  works.  It  is  their  honor  to  have 
been  the  first  to  translate  the  Bible  into  the 


MOT.  i.]    SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  PERSECUTIONS.   27 

Bohemian  vernacular  from  the  original  tongues. 
This  version,  which  is  a  model  of  idiomatic 
Bohemian,  and  a  linguistic  authority  to  the  pres- 
ent day,  appeared  in  six  volumes  folio,  from  1579 
to  1590,  and  was  the  labor  of  fifteen  years.1 

But  the  rancorous  Ferdinand  II,  who  came  to 
the  throne  (1617),  had  been  educated  by  the 
Jesuits ;  was  a  very  child  of  hell ;  took  upon 
himself  a  vow  to  exterminate  all  heresy,  and 
with  the  bitter  fidelity  of  fanaticism,  acted  on  his 
resolution.  Thus  began  that  disastrous  move- 
ment known  as  the  Anti-Reformation.  Imprison- 
ment, confiscation,  banishment  and  torture  were 
the  order  of  the  day.  Some  of  the  Brethren  apos- 
tatized ;  but  many  remained  heroically  firm,  like 
John  Prostiborsky,  who,  amidst  the  agonies  of  the 
rack,  bit  his  tongue  that  he  might  not  reveal  any- 
thing to  the  injury  of  his  associates.  At  length 
the  decisive  battle  of  Weisenberg,  "  White  Moun- 
tain," 1620,  gave  apparently  a  final  triumph  to  the 
cause  of  unrighteousness,  and  extirpation  of  the 
evangelicals  was  resolved  upon.  The  noble  army 
of  martyrs  received  large  accessions,  not  less  than 
twenty-seven  Protestant  noblemen,  many  of  them 
members  of  the  Brethren's  Church,  being  executed 
in  one  day  (1621).  Count  Andreas  Schlick,  one 
of  the  most  eminent  for  talent  and  accomplish- 

1  The  New  Testament  has  been  reprinted  by  the  Amos 
Comenius  Society  at  Prague,  assisted  by  the  London  Religious 
Tract  Society. 


28  MOKAVIAN  MISSIONS.  Cuoi.i. 

ments  among  the  Bohemian  nobility,  mounting 
the  scaffold  in  the  full  blaze  of  a  June  morning, 
exclaims:  "  Christ,  the  sun  of  righteousness,  grant 
that  I  may  pass  through  the  darkness  of  death 
to  thine  everlasting  light  I  "  The  knight,  Caspar 
Capliz,  eighty  years  of  age,  too  feeble  to  walk 
alone,  and  too  stiff  to  kneel  at  the  place  of  execu- 
tion, except  with  great  difficulty,  breathes  out  his 
soul  with  the  words:  "Lord  Jesus,  receive  my 
spirit."  Just  as  the  executioner  was  ready  to  do 
his  office,  "  I  see  the  heavens  opened,"  exclaimed 
Otto  von  Loos,  Stephen-like.  Such  were  the  vic- 
tims of  the  tender  mercies  of  Holy  Mother  Church 
and  of  civil  potentates  obedient  to  her  behests. 
At  the  castle  of  Prostau  hundreds  of  persons 
were  confined  in  the  stable,  every  opening  of 
which  was  carefully  closed  up,  thus  converting 
it  into  an  earlier  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta.  At 
Koniggratz  the  brutal  soldiery,  quartered  upon 
those  inhabitants  whose  only  fault  was  that  they 
were  not  Papists,  practiced  special  severity. 
Shall  it  be  considered  a  coincidence  undesigned 
by  God,  that  the  decisive  battle  which  humbled 
Austria  in  1866  occurred  at  Koniggratz? 

Evangelical  pastors,  whether  Lutherans,  Re- 
formed, or  Picards,  as  the  Brethren  were  called 
contemptuously,  became  especially  obnoxious  to 
the  Papists,  who  at  length  effected  their  removal.1 

1  In  1624  all  had  been  driven  from  the  country.  Of  the  two 
hundred  who  went  into  exile,  one  hundred  and  four  died  within 
ten  years. 


LKCT.I.]  AMOS   COMENIUS.  29 

To  harbor  one  of  those  banished  men  was  made  a 
penal  offence ;  Protestant  Bibles  and  other  books 
were  burned — one  Jesuit  boasting  that  he  had 
thus  destroyed  over  sixty  thousand  volumes ; 
graves  were  desecrated ;  taxation  amounting  to 
spoliation,  and  other  oppressive  measures  con- 
tinued till  the  population  of  the  country  was 
reduced  to  about  one  fourth  —  from  three  millions 
to  eight  hundred  thousand.  More  than  thirty 
thousand  families  emigrated.  Flourishing  do- 
mains became  wastes,  while  the  spiritual  desola- 
tion was  still  more  appalling.  Ferdinand  made  a 
solitude,  and  called  it  peace,  and  received  the 
thanks  of  the  Romish  hierarchy  as  if  he  had 
performed  a  meritorious  feat.  Economically  Bo- 
hemia suffered  no  less  than  Spain  from  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Moors,  and  France  from  the  exile  of 
the  Huguenots.1 

The  last  bishop  of  this  older  Brethren's  Church, 
Comenius,  a  man  of  superior  talent,  learning  and 
piety,  has  already  been  mentioned  as  a  distin- 
guished educator.  When,  in  1627,  all  the  Protes- 
tant nobility  were  expelled  from  the  kingdom,  he 
was  obliged  to  leave  his  retreat,  the  castle  of  a 
friendly  Bohemian  baron,  and  with  a  part  of  his 
flock  to  migrate  into  Poland.  Reaching  the  sum- 

1  In  the  peace  of  Westphalia  (1648)  the  Protestant  powers 
made  no  effort  to  secure  a  single  stipulation  favorable  to  their 
co-religionists  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  but  abandoned  them  to 
the  merciless  intolerance  of  Austria. 


30  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.I. 

mit  of  this  very  range  of  mountains  where,  in 
imagination,  we  have  stationed  ourselves,  he 
turned  for  a  farewell  look  upon  that  region 
which  had  become  an  aceldama,  kneeled  with 
his  fellow  exiles,  and  offered  up  a  most  fervent 
prayer,  beseeching  God  not  to  suffer  the  light  of 
divine  truth  to  go  out  in  those  countries  they 
were  leaving,  but  that  he  would  there  preserve  a 
seed  to  serve  him.  His  supplication  ranks  among 
the  memorable  historic  prayers,  such  as  that  of 
William  Tyndale,  who,  an  exile  and  at  the  stake, 
offered  the  petition :  "  O  Lord,  open  the  king  of 
England's  eyes."  A  century  afterwards  it  was 
inscribed  within  the  ball  of  the  Bohemian  church- 
steeple  at  Berlin,  being  then  regarded  as  a  prayer 
and  a  prophecy  accomplished.1 

By  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  any 
student  of  history,  or  observer  of  the  times,  would 
have  said  that  Protestantism  had  breathed  its  last 
in  Bohemia.  The  Brethren's  Church,  subsequent 
to  its  destruction  in  that  country,  after  having 
continued  for  nearly  three  quarters  of  a  century 
longer  in  Poland  and  Hungary,  now  had  no  dis- 
tinct existence ;  even  the  shadow  of  organization 


1  Comenius  is  a  grand  and  venerable  figure  of  sorrow. 
Wandering,  persecuted  and  homeless,  during  the  terrible  and 
desolating  Thirty  Years'  War,  he  yet  never  despaired,  but  with 
enduring  truth,  and  strong  in  faith,  he  labored  unweariedly  to 
prepare  youth  by  a  better  education  for  a  better  future.  Von 
Raumer. 


LKCT.I.]  HIDDEN"  BELIEVEKS.  31 

could  not  easily  be  found.  The  Brethren  had 
been  banished,  burned,  drowned,  or  imprisoned  in 
the  deep  mines  of  Kuttenberg.  What  but  extinc- 
tion may  be  expected  when  a  people  are  outlawed 
and  despoiled ;  when  they  are  liable  to  be  thrust 
into  dungeons  or  bound  to  the  rack ;  when  they 
may  be  murdered  with  impunity ;  when  a  man's 
foes  are  they  of  his  own  household,  nearest  rela- 
tives in  the  dread  of  death  betraying  one  another? 
It  is  only  strange  that  this  outraged  church  had 
existed  so  long.  Through  many  a  dreary  year 
her  "  witnesses  prophesied,  clothed  in  sackcloth." 
Notwithstanding  public  Protestantism  was  ex- 
tinguished, the  Lord  still  had  a  small  remnant, 
called  "The  Hidden  Seed,"  in  Bohemia  and 
Moravia.  Here  and  there  was  a  Bible  in  a  cellar, 
in  a  hole  in  the  wall,  in  a  hollow  log,  or  in  a  space 
beneath  the  dog-kennel  —  a  secret  which  the  head 
of  the  family  would  dare  to  make  known,  even  to 
his  children,  only  on  his  death-bed.  At  one  place 
on  the  border  line  of  Hungary,  the  farmers  were 
wont  to  go  over  the  boundary  from  week  to  week 
on  Saturday,  to  bring  hay  in  their  carts ;  and 
they  would  also  bring  back  their  pastor,  con- 
cealed in  a  load,  that  he  might  preach  to  them  on 
the  Sabbath.  At  another  village  might  be  seen  a 
woodman,  axe  in  hand,  wending  his  way  through 
the  forest  in  order  to  hold  a  service,  though  at  the 
risk  of  his  life,  among  Bohemian  Brethren.  He 
was  a  Hungarian  pastor,  and  did  not  bid  for  a 
larger  field  or  a  higher  salary. 


32  MOEAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LZCT.I. 

All  this  while  the  Lord  had  his  thoughts  of 
mercy,  and  his  ulterior  plans.  Though  the  very 
name  of  the  Brethren  had  almost  died  out,  a 
breath  of  spring  passed  over  the  little  remnant  in 
Bohemia  and  Moravia.  This  breathing  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  from  the  four  winds  of  heaven  early 
in  the  last  century  (1715)  came  into  the  valley  of 
vision  at  one  and  the  same  time,  without  concert 
between  the  dry  bones  of  Fulneck1  in  Moravia, 
and  Leutomischel  and  Landscrone  in  Bohemia 
—  one  of  those  instances  of  simultaneous  and 
independent  gracious  visitation  which  always 
betoken  something  special  and  far-reaching  in 
the  spiritual  kingdom.  Christian  David,  a  car- 
penter in  the  village  of  Senftleben,  a  superstitious 
Roman  Catholic,  had  soul-troubles  which  no  pen- 
ances or  invocation  of  saints  could  relieve.  Till 
twenty  years  of  age  he  had  riot  even  seen  a  Bible ; 
but  coming  into  acquaintance  with  some  of  the 
Protestants  who,  in  spite  of  imprisonment,  would 
pray  and  sing,  whatever  it  cost  them,  and  obtain- 
ing a  copy  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  he  was  savingly 
taught  of  God.  Leaving  his  native  country,  he 
worked  at  his  trade  in  Prussia,  Lusatia  and  Sile- 
sia, becoming  meanwhile  fully  confirmed  in  the 
faith.  He  began  to  make  journeys  back  into 
Moravia  that  he  might  communicate  truths  which 

1  Fulneck  belonged  to  the  parish  in  which  Comenius  had 
labored,  and  in  which  afterwards  was  felt  the  influence  of  the 
pious  George  Jaschke. 


LECT.I.]  THE  EXODTJS.  S3 

had  brought  life  to  his  own  soul.  Arriving  at  his 
native  village  (JL717)  he  became  acquainted  with 
the  family  of  Neissers,  grandchildren  of  a  deeply 
pious  man,  George  Jaschke,  who,  like  Enoch,  had 
walked  with  God  in  the  midst  of  an  ungodly 
Jesuit  community.  They  were  powerfully  awak- 
ened, and  desired  to  emigrate.  Christian  David 
searched  long  to  find  an  asylum  for  them ;  and 
was  finally  directed  to  Count  Zinzendorf,  who 
promised  to  receive  Moravian  emigrants  on  his 
estate  at  Berthelsdorf.  Christian  David  hastens 
back  (1722),  and  two  out  of  five  brothers  resolve 
at  once  to  leave  house  and  home,  a  good  business 
and  a  handsome  property.  In  the  fear  of  betrayal 
they  dare  not  communicate  their  decision  to 
friends,  though  they  could  not  refrain  from  ap- 
prising their  mother,  who  was  so  overcome  as  to 
faint  repeatedly.  The  next  night  two  of  the 
Neissers,  their  wives,  one  son  of  six  years,  a 
daughter  of  three,  and  twins  only  twelve  weeks 
old,  with  Jaschke  and  a  young  woman,  after  ten 
o'clock  start  on  their  pilgrimage  under  the  guid- 
ance of  Christian  David.  He  conducts  them 
along  by-ways  into  Silesia,  and  the  exiles  reach 
the  estate  of  Zinzendorf,  though  the  Count  him- 
self was  then  absent  in  Dresden.  At  the  instance 
of  his  steward  and  of  a  tutor  in  the  Gersdorf 
family  at  Gross-Hen nersdorf,  a  site  for  them  is 
selected.  It  was  then  a  perfect  wilderness,  cov- 
ered with  bushes  and  trees ;  the  ground  a  swamp, 

3 


34  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.I 

and  not  a  habitation  to  be  seen  in  the  vicinity. 
The  first  blow  of  a  woodsman's  axe  was  struck  by 
Christian  David,  whose  tombstone  is  the  first  to 
meet  us  on  entering  the  cemetery  at  Herrnhut. 
Passing  through  the  present  village  in  a  direction 
nearly  opposite  to  that  "  God's  Acre,"  we  come  to 
a  monument  placed  near  the  highway,  in  a  grove. 
It  is  the  only  monument  of  the  kind  to  be  found 
throughout  the  region ;  for  the  Moravian  Breth- 
ren are  not  given  to  paying  compliments  either  to 
the  living  or  the  dead.  Even  this  Denkstein  ex- 
hibits no  name.  The  inscription  runs  thus :  "  On 
this  spot  was  felled  the  first  tree  for  the  settle- 
ment of  Herrnhut,  June  17,  1722.  Psalm  84: 
4  [3]  :  '  Yea,  the  sparrow  hath  found  an  house,  and 
the  swallow  a  nest  for  herself  where  she  may  lay 
her  young,  even  thine  altars,  O  Lord  of  hosts,  my 
king  and  my  God.'  "  The  new  settlement  here 
was  begun  just  one  hundred  years  after  the  de- 
struction of  the  old  Moravian  church  in  Bohemia 
and  Moravia,  and  came  to  be  known  as  Herrnhut, 
the  "  Lord's  Watch." 

The  departure  of  the  Neissers  exposed  their  rel- 
atives who  remained  behind  to  persecution.  They 
were  thrown  into  prison ;  one  man's  house  was 
leveled  to  the  ground,  merely  for  having  lodged 
a  Protestant;  but  this  only  reconciled  them  to 
leave  all  the  next  year  and  betake  themselves  to 
Herrnhut.  Christian  David  revisited  Moravia, 
and  his  secret  labors  were  attended  by  a  remark- 


LKCT  i.]  PROVIDENTIAL  DESIGNS.  35 

able  religious  awakening.  Herdsmen  among  their 
flocks  spent  the  time  in  prayer  and  in  singing 
spiritual  hymns;  secular  music  was  no  longer 
heard  in  the  villages,  and  places  of  amusement 
were  abandoned.  The  old  resort  of  fine,  imprison- 
ment and  torture  failed  to  arrest  the  work  of  grace 
or  to  check  the  flight  of  the  Brethren.  Once 
fairly  beyond  the  immediate  precincts  of  peril 
from  Jesuit  watchfulness,  they  would  fall  on  their 
knees,  implore  divine  protection,  and  join  in  a 
hymn  which  their  ancestors  had  composed  and 
sung  under  similar  circumstances  a  hundred  years 
before : 

"  Bless'd  be  the  day  when  I  must  roam 
Far  from  my  country,  friends  and  home, 

An  exile  poor  and  mean ; 
My  fathers'  God  will  be  my  guide, 
Will  angel  guards  for  me  provide, 

My  soul  in  danger  screen ; 
Himself  will  lead  me  to  a  spot, 
Where,  all  my  cares  and  griefs  forgot, 

I  shall  enjoy  sweet  rest ; 
As  pants  for  cooling  streams  the  hart, 
I  languish  for  my  heavenly  part, 

For  God,  my  refuge  blest." 

Thus  one  group  after  another  effected  their 
escape,  never  without  greatest  inconvenience, 
great  suffering,  and  often  with  signal  interpositions 
of  Providence.  The  sacred  stream,  which  to  all 
public  observation  was  completely  dried  up,  had 
only  disappeared  beneath  the  surface ;  and  now 
at  the  foot  of  the  Hutberg  is  a  Siloam  where 


36  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  CLECT.I. 

it  comes  to  light  again.  If  Catholic  potentates 
and  priesthood  had  been  tolerant,  the  Unitas 
Fratrum  might  never  have  had  existence  outside 
of  the  Austrian  empire.  Herrnhut  is  the  Plym- 
outh Rock  of  the  Moravians.  The  privations 
of  early  settlers  there  were  not  inferior  to  those 
of  our  fathers,  nor  was  their  cheerfulness  under 
those  privations  inferior.  Yes,  here  is  the  cradle 
of  a  Renewed  Church  ;  here  the  administrative 
center  of  that  community  bearing  the  corporate 
name  of  Unitas  Fratrum,  which  for  a  century  and 
a  half,  notwithstanding  its  wide  dispersion,  has 
remained  singularly  united ;  and  in  proportion  to 
numbers  and  resources,  has  continued  loyal,  be- 
yond any  other  religious  body,  to  the  true  idea  of 
gospel  promulgation.  Her  evangelism  is  her  life 
and  glory,  prosecuted  as  it  has  been  in  regions 
and  under  circumstances  most  forbidding.  What- 
ever else  of  value  may  have  resulted  from  the 
Bohemian  reformation,  or  may  now  remain  in  that 
country,  this  was  the  jewel.1 

On  the  map  of  Europe  Herrnhut  is  an  almost 
invisible  point.  In  the  chart  of  modern  history, 
the  affairs  of  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  two  among 
the  many  constituencies  of  the  Austrian  Empire, 
do  not  occupy  a  large  space.  Why  then  this 
review  of  such  antecedents?  Because  history  is 
not  a  rope  of  sand,  a  mere  aggregation  of  facts. 

1  Die  Perle  der  bohmischen  Reformation.  Czerwenka  I,  Vor. 
xi. 


MOT.  I.]  PROVIDENTIAL  DESIGNS.  37 

Herrnhut  is  a  result,  not  simply  a  beginning.  No 
isolated  beginning  can  be  found  this  side  of  Eden. 
The  Unitas  Fratrum,  in  its  missionary  develop- 
ment, has  continuity  with  former  generations  and 
with  the  other  side  of  the  Giant  Mountains.  That 
long  and  bitter  schooling  of  Moravian  Brethren, 
with  its  four  distinct  persecutions,  had  preparatory 
reference  to  a  work  which  is  now  upon  the  second 
century  of  its  noble  fulfillment.  Severity  of  disci- 
pline imparted  Christian  firmness  and  transpar- 
ency. Upon  their  character,  patterns  of  self-sacri- 
fice and  endurance,  traced  like  figures  on  their  own 
beautiful  Bohemian  glass,  were  made  permanent  in 
the  furnace  of  fiery  trials. 


LECTURE  n. 

COUNT   ZINZENDORF. 


COUNT  ZINZENDORF. 


FIKST-KATE  men  are  a  formative  power  in  their 
times;  second-rate  men  are  formed  by  their  times. 
No  great  movement  in  society  or  in  the  church 
takes  place  without  a  superior  mind  to  lead  and 
give  it  shape.  Whenever  God  would  set  in 
motion  a  far-reaching  enterprise,  whenever  he 
would  bring  about  a  reformation,  political,  philan- 
thropic or  religious,  he  raises  up  some  agent 
specially  fitted  for  the  work.  Is  Holland  to  be 
liberated,  or  Italy  reunited  ?  William  the  Silent 
and  Count  Cavour  appear  on  the  stage.  When 
evangelical  religion  is  to  be  revived  in  England, 
prison  discipline  to  be  reformed,  the  slave-trade 
abolished,  the  Order  of  Deaconesses  restored, 
and  the  "Inner  Mission"  established,  White- 
field  and  Wesley,  Howard,  Clarkson,  Fliedner, 
Wichern  are  at  hand.  To  this  category  be- 
longs Count  Zinzendorf.  If  persistence  in  lofty 
aims,  if  unflagging  zeal  for  the  highest  good  of 
others,  if  consecration  to  the  ministry  of  Chris- 
tian ideas  in  advance  of  one's  age,  if  imparting 
a  valuable  impulse  and  impress  which  abide 
through  generations  constitute  greatness,  then 
was  he,  despite  of  certain  imperfections  and  mis- 

(41) 


42  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CL«oi.n. 

takes,  a  great  man.  Abuse  did  not  sour  him,  nor 
did  difficulties  daunt  him.  Though  he  stands  at 
the  head  of  Moravian  writers,  his  life  is  greater 
than  his  writings;  it  has  proved  germinant  and 
fruitful.  He  was  not  only  a  statesman,  an  eccle- 
siastical administrator,  a  poet  and  preacher,  but 
also  a  missionary.  As  his  influence  upon  the 
Renewed  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  at  the 
outset  of  their  foreign  work  was  in  a  high  degree 
plastic,  satisfactory  acquaintance  with  their  mis- 
sions requires  that  we  make  his  character  and 
course  a  study. 

Belonging  to  an  Austrian  house  of  high  an- 
tiquity, Count  Zinzendorf  could  look  back  upon 
twenty  generations  to  the  founder,  Ehrenhold. 
It  was  one  of  twelve  families  on  which,  in  the 
eleventh  century,  the  Austrian  dynasty  depended 
for  support.  His  grandfather,  in  leaving  Austria 
for  conscience  sake,  left  all  his  estates  behind  him. 
His  father  entered  the  service  of  the  Elector  of 
Saxony  at  Dresden,  and  died  six  months  after  the 
birth  of  this  son,  May  26,  1700.  He  was  a  man 
of  decided  piety.  Spener,  the  Electress  of  Sax- 
ony and  the  Electress  Palatinate  stood  as  sponsors 
to  the  child  at  his  baptism.  Upon  the  second 
marriage  of  his  mother,  Zinzendorf,  while  yet  a 
mere  child,  was  left  to  the  care  of  his  grand- 
mother, the  Baroness  von  Gersdorf,  who  lived  in 
the  Castle  of  Gross-Hennersdorf,  from  which 
Herrnhut  is  distant  only  a  league.  We  will 


LKCT.IIJ  EARLY  PEETT.  43 

linger  a  moment  at  the  old  ancestral  pile,  as  it 
now  stands.  It  is  sadly  dilapidated.  A  forester 
occupies  a  part  of  the  basement  on  one  side  of 
the  court.  Silence  and  decay  reign  in  the  halls. 
We  are  shown  the  window,  out  of  which  when 
a  boy,  Zinzendorf,  with  childlike  simplicity,  tossed 
letters  addressed  to  the  Saviour,  telling  him  how 
his  heart  felt  toward  him,  in  the  hope  that  his 
heavenly  Friend  might  find  them.  At  that  time, 
a  century  and  three  quarters  ago,  this  manorial 
seat  was  the  abode  of  comfort,  and  a  certain 
amount  of  elegance  and  opulence. 

The  chief  ornament  of  the  place  was  the  Bar- 
oness von  Gersdorf.     A  woman  of  superior  mind 
and   culture,  she  read  the  Bible   in  its  original 
languages,  composed  hymns  in  German  and  Latin, 
and  in  the  last-named  language  carried  on  corre- 
spondence  with   Spener,  Franke,   Von   Canstein 
and  other  learned  men.     Her  Christian  character, 
decided  in  its  tone,  took  on  the  type  of  Pietism 
in  its   initial  and   better  period.     An  aunt  who 
was  also  in  the  family,  prayed  with  the  lad  morn- 
ing and  evening.     His  earliest  boyhood  revealed 
noteworthy   traits,   for  even   at   that  period    he 
began  to  hold  intimate  communion  with  the  Lord 
Jesus,  a  practice  which   continued   through  life. 
/When  the  army  of  Charles  XII  of  Sweden  was 
1  in   Saxony,  a  party  of  soldiers  intruding  them- 
1  selves  into  the  Castle  of  Hennersdorf,  and  into 
\the  room  where  the  Count,'  only  six  years  old, 


44  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.II. 

•was  at  prayer,  were  so  impressed  by  the  earnest- 
ness of  his  devotions  that  they  paused  in  silence, 
and  soon  withdrew.  '  It  was  in  his  fourth  year 
that  he  began  earnestly  to  seek  after  God ;  and 
while  yet  a  child  he  framed  a  covenant  which  ran 
thus :  "  Be  thou  mine,  dear  Saviour,  and  I  will 
be  thine ; "  and  it  was  often  renewed  afterwards. 
His  chief  delight  seemed  to  be  in  showing  kind- 
ness to  others ;  and  he  would  deem  nothing  valu- 
able to  himself  which  another  needed  more. 

At  ten  years  of  age  Zinzendorf  entered  the 
Royal  Psedagogium  of  Halle,  then  under  the  care 
of  Augustus  Hermann  Franke.  Here  his  habits 
of  devotion  and  his  interest  in  practical  benevo- 
lence gained  further  strength.  So  active  had  he 
been  in  establishing  circles  for  prayer,  that  on 
leaving  Halle  (1716)  he  handed  Professor  Franke 
a  list  of  seven  such  societies.  Religious  activity 
had  not  interfered  with  his  studies,  for  at  that 
age,  sixteen,  he  could  compose  a  Greek  oration, 
and  speak  extemporaneously  in  Latin,  on  subjects 
given  out  at  the  time.  He  next  joined  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wittenberg,  the  design  of  an  uncle  who 
had  charge  of  his  education  being  to  withdraw 
him  from  the  religious  atmosphere  of  Halle,  which 
it  was  feared  might  indispose  him  for  the  worldly 
position  then  in  mind.  Family  friends  anticipat- 
ing for  him  civil  promotion  such  as  his  father 
had  achieved,  the  young  Count  was  matriculated 
as  student  of  jurisprudence.  That  course  being 


LBCT.II.]  EARLY  TRAVELS.  45 

distasteful,  he  desired  to  devote  himself  to  Bibli- 
cal studies ;  yet  yielded  dutifully  to  the  com- 
mands of  relatives.  In  the  comparative  seclusion 
and  want  of  Christian  fellowship  at  Wittenberg, 
his  inner  experience  became  for  a  time  more  legal- 
istic ;  he  fell  into  somewhat  rigorous  asceticism, 
devoting  much  time  to  fasting,  and  whole  nights 
to  prayer,  as  did  Wesley  and  WhiteJQjeld  a  few 
years  later  at  Oxford ;  while  the  religious  frater- 
nities which  he  had  formed  at  the  Psedagogium 
also  remind  us  of  the  Oxford  Methodists.  Zin- 
zendorf  gave  himself,  however,  with  much  industry 
to  his  studies,  and  before  leaving  the  University 
delivered  lectures  to  some  young  men  on  the  civil 
law.  Although  a  youth  of  only  eighteen,  he 
attempted  to  mediate  between  the  contending 
theologians  of  Wittenberg  and  Halle  ;  his  media- 
tion was  accepted;  and  but  for  the  needless 
interference  of  his  private  tutor,  important  results 
might  have  followed.  Such  a  character,  such  a 
development  was  all  the  more  remarkable,  consid- 
ering the  class  to  which  he  belonged,  and  the  age 
in  which  he  lived,  that  of  a  century  and  a  half 
ago.  "  In  these  corrupt  times,"  said  Spener,  "  it 
seems  to  men  well-nigh  impossible  to  bring  up 
children,  especially  of  the  higher  rank,  as  Chris- 
tians." 

Between  two  and  three  years  having  been  spent 
at  Wittenberg  in  the  study  of  law,  theology, 
Hebrew  and  related  departments,  he  began  his 


46  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.II. 

travels,  which  according  to  the  custom  of  the  day, 
constituted  a  necessary  part  of  the  education  of 
a  young  nobleman.  The  tour  then  made  both 
disclosed  and  confirmed  his  traits.  Holland  and 
France  were  the  countries  principally  to  be  vis- 
ited. Aware  that  powerful  temptations  would 
await  him,  he  resolved  firmly  to  maintain  his 
Christian  position,  and  hence  wrote  —  a  sugges- 
A  tive  declaration  for  young  tourists  — "  If  the 
jobject  of  my  being  sent  to  France  is  to  make  me 
a  man  of  the  world,  I  declare  that  this  is  money 
thrown  away;  for  God  will,  in  his  goodness, 
^preserve  in  me  the  desire  to  live  only  for  Jesus 
Christ."  His  soul  seemed  to  be  uniformly  lifted 
above  earthly  things.  In  the  Diisseldorf  Gallery 
of  paintings  his  attention  was  drawn,  with  marked 
effect,  to  a  wonderfully  expressive  Ecce  Homo, 
over  which  were  the  words : 

"  This  have  I  done  for  thee  : 
What  doest  thou  for  me  ?  "  * 

On  his  nineteenth  birthday  he  arrived  at 
Utrecht,  and  there  spent  some  months  in  attend- 
ing lectures  in  the  law  department  and  also  in  the 
study  of  medicine.  Thence  he  went  to  France. 
The  Count's  noble  birth  entitled  him  to  admission 
into  the  higher  circles  of  Parisian  society;  in 
person  and  manners  he  was  sufficiently  attractive 

1  Hoc  fed  pro  te, 
Quid  fads  pro  me  f 


LKCT.II.J  CHOICE  OP  POSITION.  47 

to  be  sought  for;  yet  would  he  make  no  com- 
promise of  Christian  consistency ;  would  neither 
gamble  nor  dance  at  court,  nor  become  intimate 
with  any  one  who  appeared  unworthy  of  confi- 
dence. "  Good  evening,  Count,"  said  a  Duchess ; 
"were  you  at  the  opera  last  evening?"  "No, 
madame,"  he  replied,  "  I  have  no  time  to  go  to 
the  opera."  An  attempt  was  made  by  Cardinal 
de  Noailles,  Archbishop  of  Paris,  to  convert  him 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  ;  but  the  young  man 
did  not  waver  any  more  than  when  the  same 
thing  was  attempted  previously  at  the  Hague. 
Others  tried  to  corrupt  his  morals ;  but  no 
blandishments  and  no  arguments  could  make 
him  swerve  from  his  loyalty  to  simple  scripture 
truths,  which  had  been  well  weighed  and  settled 
in  his  convictions.  Such  institutions  as  the  Hotel 
Dieu  were  far  more  attractive  to  him  than  the 
splendors  of  Versailles.  "  Oh,  brilliant  wretched- 
ness !  " '  he  exclaims,  as  some  others  have  done 
on  leaving  Paris. 

His  strong  desire,  cherished  from  childhood, 
was  to  devote  himself  exclusively  to  the  cause 
of  Christ;'  and  during  a  visit  at  Halle,  he  was 
offered  the  position  which  had  been  held  by  the 
deceased  Baron  von  Canstein,  who  established 
the  first  institution  for  circulating  the  Bible  ;  but 

1  0  splendida  miser ia  ! 

2  Ich  habe  von  Kindheit  auf  ein  Feuer  in   meinen   Beinen   die 
ewige  Gottheit  Jesus  zu  predigen.     Theol.  Bedenk.  (1742),  122. 


48  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.II. 

his  relatives  would  not  listen  to  this.  They  had 
destined  him  for  the  service  of  the  king  of  Sax- 
ony ;  and  his  principle  of  filial  obedience,  a  prin- 
ciple much  stronger  then  and  now  in  Germany 
than  in  our  country,  led  to  the  sacrifice  of  his 
own  preferences  without  a  murmur.  Yielding 
to  family  pressure,  he  accepted  the  position  of 
Aulic  and  Justicial  Counselor  at  Dresden.  The 
Saxon  Court  under  Augustus  the  Strong  was 
a  center  where  any  man  of  piety  would  not  fail 
to  have  his  righteous  soul  vexed.  When  he  en- 
tered upon  this  high  position,  Zinzendorf 's  chief 
solicitude  was  the  safety  of  his  own  soul  and  the 
salvation  of  others.  He  became  a  Daniel  at 
court,  keeping  the  windows  of  his  chamber  open 
towards  Jerusalem.  Faithful  in  civil  trusts,  he 
was  yet  chiefly  assiduous  in  testifying  to  the  grace 
of  God  in  Jesus  Christ.  Religious  meetings  were 
held  at  his  house  with  open  doors ;  and  a  singular 
spectacle  it  was,  to  see  a  young  man  wearing  a 
sword  as  a  badge  of  his  rank,  yet  preaching  the 
gospel  of  peace.  Seekers  of  salvation  were  the 
persons  whom  he  chiefly  sought ;  and  no  barrier 
could  keep  him  away  from  those,  whatever  their 
social  position,  who  loved  the  Lord  Jesus. 
Against  the  advice  of  friends,  and  with  the 
known  disapprobation  of  king  and  court,  he 
declined  to  attend  upon  the  fashionable  amuse- 
ments of  Dresden.  Desire  for  civil  promotion 
had  no  place  in  his  heart;  indeed  he  pleaded 


mcT.n.]     COUNSELOR  AND  EDUCATOR.        49 

against  it.  While  at  Dresden  he  also  occupied 
leisure  hours  with  editing  a  periodical  called  The 
German  Socrates,  in  which  he  reproved  the  preju- 
dices and  immoralities  of  his  fellow-citizens.  The 
time  had  now  come  for  the  Count  to  enter  form- 
ally upon  the  possession  of  his  paternal  inherit- 
ance; but  as  difficulties  arose  relating  to  sums 
due  on  certain  of  his  estates,  he  waived  his  right, 
rather  than  resort  to  litigation ;  and  then,  pur- 
chasing Berthelsdorf,  received  homage  as  lord  of 
the  manor  (May  19,  1722).  The  revenue  from 
this  manor  he  set  apart  in  aid  of  the  Moravians ; 
and  as  might  be  expected,  was  intent  upon  the 
religious  welfare  of  his  vassals  on  the  newly- 
acquired  estate. 

Resigning  his  place  at  the  Saxon  Court,  Zinzen- 
dorf  was  now  at  liberty  to  follow  the  bent  of  his 
heart.  Those  impoverished  exiles  from  Bohemia, 
of  whom  a  sketch  was  given  in  the  previous  lec- 
ture, enlisted  his  lively  sympathies.  Much  time 
was  devoted  to  their  spiritual  instruction  and 
comfort ;  nor  did  he  shrink  from  the  humblest 
services.  This  congregation  of  fugitives  he 
regarded  as  "a  parish  destined  for  him  from 
eternity ; "  and  never  did  a  band  of  Christian 
fugitives  find  more  generous  or  more  efficient 
guardianship.  Their  ecclesiastical  constitution, 
their  social  relations  and  habits  in  their  new 
home  were  yet  to  be  formed ;  and  his  hand, 
guided  by  ardent  piety,  became  apparent  in  the 

4 


50  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLBCT.II. 

constitution,  usages  and  spirit  of  the  young 
colony.  The  arrangement  of  choirs,  so  called  — 
a  distribution  of  the  community  into  separate 
classes  —  and  of  religious  meetings,  fast  days, 
love  feasts  and  night  watches ;  a  system  for  con- 
tinuous prayer,  after  the  manner  of  the  Acoemitae 
of  the  fifth  century,  and  for  the  instruction  of 
young  men,  were  among  matters  that  engaged 
his  devout  interest.  The  second  Saturday  of 
each  month  was  devoted  to  supplication  for 
children. 

The  first  settlement  of  exiles  from  Bohemia  on 
Zinzendorf's  estate  took  place  in  his  absence;  his 
connection  with  them  was  purely  providential, 
and  the  direction  which  he  sought  to  give  their 
affairs  was  not  the  result  of  any  previous  plan, 
but  such  an  outgrowth  of  divine  ordering  as  led 
him  ever  afterward  to  pronounce  it  the  work  of 
God.  The  Count's  earliest  personal  introduction 
among  the  Brethren  occurred  during  a  visit  to 
the  estate  on  his  marriage  tour.1  Evening  had 
come ;  and  while  passing,  he  notices  a  light  in  a 
dwelling  which  had  been  built  during  his  ab- 

1  Dr.  Philip  Doddridge,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Samuel  Clark 
(1737),  speaking  of  Zinzendorf  and  the  Moravians,  makes  numer- 
ous mistakes,  and  among  them  this :  they  "  were  discovered 
by  their  unknown  Lord  of  the  Manor,  the  Count,  as  he  rode  one 
morning  hunting."  Correspondence  and  Diary,  III,  262.  There 
is  not  the  slightest  foundation  in  fact  for  this  statement ;  and 
yet  it  has  as  much  foundation  as  the  allegations  in  sundry 
other  writers  which  reflect  upon  the  Count. 


WOT.  no  ORDINATION  AND  MINISTEY.  51 

sence.  Being  told  that  it  was  the  house  f>f  the 
refugees  from  Moravia,  he  leaves  the  carriage, 
enters,  gives  them  a  hearty  welcome,  and  then 
kneels  with  them  in  earnest  prayer,  commending 
them  to  God. 

In  1737  Zinzendorf  was  ordained  a  bishop  of  the 
Moravian  Church.  In  his  former  capacity,  that 
of  deacon  or  catechist,  he  labored  subordinately 
to  Pastor  Rothe,  whom  he  had  himself  presented 
to  the  living  of  Berthelsdorf,  a  Lutheran  Church, 
and  within  whose  parish  Herrnhut  was  at  that 
time  included.  But  as  Superintendent  or  Warden, 
Zinzendorf  had  a  responsibility  for  Moravians  not 
only  at  this,  their  center,  but  in  the  various  settle- 
ments which  from  time  to  time  sprang  up  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  continent.  Discordant  elements 
had  come  together.  There  were  fugitive  colonists 
of  different  nationalities,  with  no  resources,  but 
with  convictions  deeply  fixed ;  while  to  them  were 
added  accessions  of  floating  dissentients  from  the 
then  prevailing  spirit  and  life  of  Germany,  many 
of  them  as  narrow-minded  as  they  were  devout. 
In  one  instance,  on  receiving  a  number  of  persons 
to  the  church,  Zinzendorf  found  that  no  two  of 
them  belonged  to  the  same  nationality,  one  being 
a  native  of  Poland,  another  of  Hungary,  a  third 
of  Switzerland,  the  fourth  an  Englishman,  the  fifth 
a  Swede,  the  sixth  a  Livonian  and  the  seventh 
a  German.  To  fuse  materials  so  diverse  into 
an  harmonious  body  required  consummate  tact 


52  MOKAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.II. 

and  patience.  Nothing  less  than  his  Christian 
love  could  furnish  the  needed  sol  vent. /^His  plan, 
however,  was  not  to  organize  a  distinct  sect,  but 
to  gather  little  circles  or  communities  of  renewed 
persons  —  ecclesiolce  in  ecclesia,  an  Israel  within 
Israel  —  much  after  the  ideas  of  Spener,  ideas 
which  governed  the  early  Wesleyan  practice  in 
England,  so  long  as  avowed  separation  from  the 
Established  Church  was  discountenanced^  He  dis- 
couraged formal  withdrawment  from  the  Lu- 
theran or  the  Reformed  Church,  but  aimed  to 
win  souls  to  Christ,  and  to  build  them  up  in  faith 
and  love  within  existing  communities.1  Colonies 
or  communities  of  the  Unitas  Fratrum  were  to 
some  extent  encouraged  by  ruling  powers;  and 
wherever  formed,  Zinzendorf  sought  acquaintance 
with  the  individual  members,  and  labored  dili- 
gently for  their  good,  as  well  as  for  a  wise  admin- 
istration of  the  entire  body.  Distasteful  and 
repulsive  surroundings  never  dampened  his  zeal. 
The  Ronneberg  Castle, 2  for  instance,  was  a  place 
so  forbidding  that  his  friend  Christian  David 
advised  against  going  there.  "Have  you  not 
been  in  Greenland,  Christian  ?  "  said  the  Count. 
"  Yes,  if  it  were  only  Greenland !  "  replied  his 
friend.  He  took  up  his  abode  there  for  a  time ; 

1  The  circumstances  under  which  Herrnhut  originated  for- 
bade making  a  creed  the  basis  of  union ;  Christian  love  rather 
than  doctrine  became  the  vital  bond. 

2  Thirty -five  miles  from  Frankf  ort-on-the-Main. 


tECT.n.]  ORDINATION  AND  MINISTRY.  53 

and  at  once  set  about  providing  religious  instruc- 
tion for  the  rude  and  neglected  people  of  the 
neighborhood.  He  established  schools  for  poor 
children,  whom  he  clothed  and  fed  at  his  own 
expense.  But  his  fidelity  as  a  witness  to  Christ's 
cross  and  crown  was  not  limited  to  the  humble ; 
he-  testified  before  kings.  To  a  royal  princes's-! 
of  Denmark  he  said  (1731):  "Christians  are 
God's  people,  begotten  of  his  Spirit,  obedient  to 
him,  enkindled  by  his  fire ;  his  blood  is  their 
glory.  Before  the  majesty  of  the  betrothed  of 
God,  kingly  crowns  grow  pale  ;  a  hut  to  them 
becomes  a  palace.  Sufferings  under  which  heroes 
would  pine  are  gladly  borne  by  loving  hearts 
which  have  grown  strong  through  the  cross." 

At  Herrnhut  and  elsewhere,  revivals  of  marked 
character  sometimes  occurred,  one  such  in  1727, 
when,  after  a  good  deal  of  discussion,  a  remark- 
able spirit  of  love  and  union  was  manifested. 
"  The  whole  place,"  says  Zinzendorf,  "  repre- 
sented truly  a  visible  tabernacle  of  God  among 
men,  and  till  the  thirteenth  of  August  there  was 
nothing  to  be  seen  and  heard  but  joy  and  glad- 
ness ;  then  this  uncommon  joy  subsided,  and  a 
calmer  sabbatic  period  succeeded."  A  marked 
simultaneous  experience  was  noted  by  certain 
Brethren  at  the  Orphan  House  in  Sablat,  begin- 
ning on  the  same  day. 

In  journeying  from  place  to  place,  and  at  differ- 
ent resting  places,  Zinzendorf  sometimes  had  a 


54  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.  11. 

retinue  of  fifty  persons,  his  immediate  family, 
associates  in  office,  religious  helpers  and  other 
attendants,  constituting  a  Pilgrim  or  Missionary 
Church,1  a  "  church  in  the  house,"  which  main- 
tained regular  religious  worship  as  well  as  en- 
gaged in  local  Christian  work.  This  was  every- 
where an  "  Inner  Mission,"  a  home  mission,  though 
a  very  expensive  arrangement. 

Wherever  he  was,  the  Count  improved  oppor- 
tunities for  preaching.  His  delight  was  to  bear 
witness  to  the  love  of  Christ,  and  to  enlarge  upon 
some  essential  point  of  vital  religion,  which  enters 
alike  into  the  experience  of  every  spiritually- 
minded  Christian.  A  suggestion  by  him  to  other 
ministers  was  well  observed  by  himself:  "In 
order  to  preach  aright,"  says  the  Count, Intake 
three  looks  before  every  sermon :  one  at  the  depth 
of  thy  wretchedness,  another  at  the  depth  of 
human  wretchedness  all  around  thee,  and  a  third 
at  the  love  of  God  in  Jesus;  so  that,  empty  of 
self,  and  full  of  compassion  towards  thy  fellow- 
men,  thou  mayest  be  able  to  administer  God's 
comfort  to  soulsA'  His  sermons,  always  extem- 


1  The  literal  translation  of  the  German  name  Pilger-gemeine, 
the  one  adopted  by  Count  Zinzendorf ,  is  a  congregation  of  pil- 
grims; but  as  the  use  of  the  term  is  more  limited  in  the  English 
than  in  the  German  language,  and  consequently  liable  to  be 
misunderstood  by  an  English  reader,  the  author  has  substituted 
the  word  Missionary,  which  in  its  present  application  contains 
a  more  correct  idea  of  this  institution.  Holmes's  History,  I,  266, 
note. 


zjtCT.ii.]  SIFTING  PEEIOD.  55 

poraneous  and  never  written  out  by  himself, 
were  often  taken  down  in  short-hand  quite  inac- 
curately; and  being  published  without  revision, 
sometimes  did  him  great  injustice.  There  were 
occasions  when  he  discoursed  with  great  power, 
and  hearers  were  affected  to  tears.  In  Berlin, 
the  street  where  such  meetings  were  held  was 
often  lined  with  coaches.  Those  discourses,  trans- 
lated into  various  languages  and  widely  scattered, 
would  authorize  the  Count  to  say:  "Berlin  was 
only  my  pulpit;  the  sermons  are  for  all  the 
world."  Zinzendorf  aimed  to  keep  close  to  the 
Bible ;  in  later  years  he  read  but  few  other 
books.  "The  theology  of  blood"  was  a  phrase 
of  his  own,  and  the  great  atoning  sacrifice  con- 
tinued to  be  his  principal  theme  of  discourse.  To 
the  spirit  of  religious  extravagance  —  amounting, 
indeed,  to  a  practical  monomania  at  the  "  Sifting 
Period,"  so  called  (1744-1749) — he  unwittingly 
contributed ;  but  no  sooner  was  that  tendency 
discovered  than  he  set  about  correcting  the  evil ; 
and  the  complete  recovery  of  himself  and  the 
Brethren  from  such  an  infection  is  a  rare  in- 
stance of  the  kind,  and  shows  a  prevailing  sound- 
ness of  heart  and  understanding. 

We  must  linger  for  a  little  on  that  brief  period 
to  which  allusion  has  been  made.  The  theology 
of  Zinzeudorf  and  of  the  Unitas  Fratrum,  then 
at  least,  was  too  much  a  theology  of  feeling. 
Dwelling  sometimes  almost  excessively  on  the 


56  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLKCT.  n. 

sufferings  of  Christ  and  on  the  purely  physical 
accompaniments  of  those  sufferings;  concentrat- 
ing thought  thereon,  and  in  a  fanciful  manner; 
not  duly  considering  the  balanced  method,  the 
sobriety  of  Scripture  representation,  they  fell  into 
the  use  of  imagery  and  phraseology  that  were 
nauseous  to  men  of  sound  sense  and  correct 
taste.  A  stream  of  sentimentalism,  maudlin  and 
puerile,  was  poured  forth  for  a  time.  Exaggerated 
and  ill-directed  emotion  issued  finally  in  a  sort 
of  infectious  fanaticism.  It  was  like  the  disease 
known  as  fatty  degeneration  of  the  heart;  and 
it  spread  for  awhile  into  many  of  the  continental 
communities,  measurably  also  to  those  of  Eng- 
land, though  not  to  communities  in  our  own 
country. 

That  brief  period  of  deterioration  carries  with 
it  a  warning  for  all  other  Christian  communities 
and  assemblies,  relative  to  indulgence  in  over- 
wrought feeling,  and  to  excessive  use  of  sensuous 
imagery.  The  Bible  is  the  most  thoroughly  con- 
servative book  in  the  world,  and  its  aesthetic 
tone  is  most  divinely  healthful ;  but  its  benign 
power  resides  in  the  contents  as  a  whole,  not  in 
any  pet  passage,  and  especially  not  in  a  distorted 
setting  forth  of  one  truth,  however  valuable,  apart 
from  scriptural  and  logical  limitations.  On  the 
other  hand,  how  much  will  the  Lord  overlook  in 
a  church  or  an  individual  holding  to  the  prime 
fact  of  salvation  through  our  adorable  Redeemer 


utcT.ii.]  SIFTING  PERIOD.  57 

alone,  and  of  vital  union  by  faith  to  him,  a  union 
evinced  practically  in  the  life  ! 

It  should  be  kept  in  mind  that  none  have  criti- 
cised or  deplored  that  season  of  mawkish  enthu- 
siasm more  than  Moravians  themselves;  yet  it 
helped  to  create  a  permanent  prejudice.  Not 
much,  however,  is  it  to  the  credit  of  men  in  other 
communions  that  they  should  continue  to  fling  in 
the  face  of  a  church  —  which  now  for  more  than 
a  century  has  held  on  its  way  in  irreproachable 
sobriety — as  a  living  blemish,  that  which  was 
buried  so  long  ago,  and  over  whose  moss-covered 
tombstone  none  grieve  more  sincerely  than  the 
men  of  Herrnhut  themselves.  Extremely  unfair 
is  it  to  adduce  the  hymns  of  that  exceptional 
endemic,  in  proof  of  permanent  maladies  among 
the  United  Brethren.  Imperfectly  as  Robert 
Southey,  for  example,  could  appreciate  Wesley 
and  the  Methodists,  still  less  could  he  appreciate 
Zinzendorf  and  the  Moravians.  But  nothing  is 
more  spicy,  more  difficult  to  arrest,  than  popular 
calumny ;  nothing  dies  so  hard  a  death. 

In  London  some  of  the  early  Moravians,  from 
1739  to  1749,  were  not  the  most  favorable  repre- 
sentatives of  the  life  and  spirit  of  Herrnhut.  A 
portion  of  them  fell  into  Antinomianism  and  by 
anticipation  into  Plymouth  Brethrenism.  They 
indulged  in  sentimentalities,  became  self-involved, 
self-conceited,  censorious;  were  greatly  lacking 
in  breadth  and  Christian  manliness.  They  were 


58  MOKAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLBCT  n. 

. .( 

a  different  set  of  men  from  those  with  whom 
Wesley  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  1736,  whose  per- 
fect composure  and  whose  song  of  praise  amidst 
a  terrific  storm,  when  the  English  passengers 
were  screaming  with  terror,  so  impressed  him. 
Nor  were  a  majority  of  those  in  England  at  that 
period  fair  specimens  of  the  community  at  Ma- 
rienborn,  as  it  was  when  Wesley  wrote  to  his 
brother  Samuel  (1738)  :  "  God  has  given  me  at 
length  the  desire  of  my  heart.  I  am  with  a 
church  whose  conversation  is  in  heaven;  in 
whom  is  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ,  and  who 
so  walk  as  he  walked.  As  they  have  all  one 
Lord  and  one  faith,  so  they  are  all  partakers  of 
one  Spirit  —  the  Spirit  of  meekness  and  love, 
which  uniformly  and  continually  animates  all 
their  conversation."  Nor  did  the  English  Mora- 
vians of  the  decade  now  spoken  of  illustrate  the 
sobriety  of  the  parent  community  at  Herrnhut, 
to  which,  after  his  return  from  the  Continent,  he 
wrote:  "Glory  be  to  God,  even  the  Father  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  for  giving  me  to  be  an 
eye-witness  of  your  faith,  and  love,  and  holy  con- 
versation in  Christ  Jesus ! "  ' 

At  a  later  date  difficulties  arose ;  and  Wesley, 
not  without  reason,  severed  his  connection  with 
the  United  Brethren  in  England.  Whitefield,  in 

1  His  visit  to  Herrnhut  no  doubt  suggested  to  Wesley  the 
love  feasts,  division  of  members  into  classes,  and  class  meetings, 
which  he  not  long  after  adopted. 


LBCT.II.]  ZINZENDORF  AND  WESLEY.  59 

v. 

his  customary  haste  of  judgment,  wrote  criticisms 
which  he  might  better  have  withheld.  It  was 
unfortunate  that  the  whole  body  of  the  Moravians 
should  come  under  consequent  censure.  Two 
such  men  as  Zinzendorf  and  Wesley,  men  of  com- 
manding talent,  of  great  independence,  of  great 
will-power,  and  both  born  to  rule,  seldom  get  on 
well  together,  for  any  length  of  time,  this  side  of 
New  Jerusalem.  It  was  Greek  meeting  Greek. 
The  former  carried  a  noble,  genial  countenance 
which,  with  his  person  and  majestic  bearing, 
would  attract  notice  on  the  streets  of  Berlin, 
Amsterdam  and  London.  Under  all  his  humility, 
which  was  genuine,  you  could  still  see  the  Ger- 
man nobleman.  At  times,  though  not  often,  he 
seemed  imperious  and  harsh.  He  was  impressible 
and  impulsive.  John  Wesley  was  marvelously 
self-poised ;  had  rare  perspicacity ;  had  clear-cut 
Anglo-Saxon  sense,  which  needs  much  grace 
when  it  has  to  deal  with  mystic  Germanism. 
Each  had  a  purpose,  compact  and  consistent; 
each  by  his  position  was  obliged  to  be  autocratic  ; 
but  Wesley  exacted  the  more  unqualified  sub- 
mission. That  feature  of  administration,  required 
at  the  time  in  each  case,  would  not  now  be  toler- 
ated in  either.  To  a  high  degree  Zinzendorf  pos- 
sessed the  power  of  organizing  men ;  Wesley  the 
power  of  organizing  men  and  ideas;  Whitefield 
possessed  neither  in  any  unusual  measure.  Wes- 
ley was  a  theologian ;  Zinzendorf  was  not.  The 


60  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKOT.H. 

writings  of  the  one  are  characterized  by  great 
purity  and  precision  of  style ;  the  other's  writings 
are  sometimes  obscure,  often  bizarre.  But  let  this 
dead  past  remain  in  its  tomb.  Was  all  New  Eng- 
land tainted  with  the  vagaries  of  Anne  Hutchin- 
son  ?  Or,  had  that  been  true,  would  it  detract 
from  the  present  soundness  and  sobriety  of  our 
churches,  after  the  lapse  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ?  Was  it  a  legitimate  petition  of  the  Psalm- 
ist: "Oh,  Lord!  remember  not  the  sins  of  my 
youth ; "  and  may  not  every  church  in  Christen- 
dom well  pray  that  the  mistakes  of  their  early 
days  be  not  remembered  against  them  by  sister 
churches  ?  * 

The  Count's  authorship  was  prolific  —  about 
a  hundred  and  fifty  publications  making  their 
appearance,  chiefly  in  the  German  language, 
though  sundry  tracts  were  in  Latin,  French  and 
English.  His  style,  that  of  the  period,  often 
exhibits  an  admixture  of  terms  from  classical  and 
modern  languages.  His  writings  bear  the  stamp 


1  In  the  providence  of  God  it  was  well  that  Seifferth  dis- 
suaded Wesley  from  joining  the  Moravian  church  in  Georgia, 
telling  him  that  God  had  given  him  a  different  calling  in  which 
he  might  become  more  useful.  But  it  is  particularly  unfortu- 
nate that  Wesley  in  his  day,  and  that  in  our  day  Tyerman, 
author  of  the  excellent  work,  Life  and  Times  of  John  Wesley, 
should,  like  some  others,  give  credence  to  a  pamphlet  by  Henry 
Rimius,  entitled,  A  Candid  Narrative  of  (lie  Rise  and  Progress  of 
the  Ilerrnhutters,  etc.  Rimius  was  a  bitter  and  untruthful  enemy 
of  the  Unitas  Fratrum. 


LECT.II.]       CHARACTERISTICS   AND   HABITS.  61 

of  originality ;  yet  owing  in  part  to  the  vividness 
of  his  imagination,  are  not  free  from  singularities 
and  irregularities.  Zinzendorf  is  the  Charles 
Wesley  of  the  United  Brethren  and  of  Germany 
in  his  time ;  his  poetical  effusions  number  more 
than  two  thousand.  Beginning  at  twelve  years 
of  age,  he  composed  hymns  with  the  greatest 
ease ;  indeed,  would  not  unfrequently  extem- 
porize one  in  connection  with  worship ;  and  — 
what  is  yet  more  singular — he  could  easily  sing 
extemporaneous  hymns  without  previous  reflec- 
tion, and  was  known  to  improvise  eight  in  a 
single  day.  Such  a  habit  could  not  fail  to  be- 
come a  snare ;  carelessness  with  regard  to  poetic 
form  and  finish  was  inevitable.  Yet  it  must  be 
confessed  that  few  have  tuned  the  harp  to  a  more 
fervid  celebration  of  redeeming  love. 

His  imagination,  lively  though  not  perfectly 
disciplined,  drew  him  toward  the  mystical,  and 
but  for  a  quick  discernment,  and  his  concentrated 
practical  spirit,  might  have  betrayed  him  into 
wild  excess.  Versatile  in  genius,  his  career  some- 
times bordering  upon  the  romantic,  the  Count 
still  showed  statesmanlike  qualities.  !-He  under- 
stood men,  and  had  a  wide  acquaintance  with 
princes,  noblemen,  university  professors,  as  well 
as  peasants  and  artisans,  persons  of  divergent 
belief  and  various  nationalities ;  and  his  vigorous 
pursuit  of  definite  benevolent  aims  kept  him  from 
wasting  strength  in  visionary  schemes,  "j  His  in- 


62  MOBAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.II. 

dustry  was  indefatigable.  Even  during  the  last 
four  months  of  his  life,  with  bodily  powers  much 
reduced,  he  delivered  one  hundred  and  twenty 
discourses,  besides  composing  hymns  and  attend- 
ing to  various  duties.  The  minute  superintend- 
ence of  communities  numerous  and  widely  sepa- 
rated— in  Germany,  where  were  eleven,  in  Russia, 
Norway,  Denmark,  Holland,  Switzerland,  England, 
not  to  mention  missionary  stations  that  were 
multiplying — and  the  direction  of  interests  so 
various,  ecclesiastical,  civil,  educational,  financial, 
did  not  •  prevent  patient  labor  with  individuals. 
Journeying  or  stationary,  on  land  or  on  shipboard, 
he  still  looked  for  opportunities  to  lead  particular 
souls  to  Christ. 

As  regards  pecuniary  concerns,  Zinzendorf  did 
not  practice  due  caution.  Confiding  in  others, 
sometimes  in  those  who  were  incompetent  or 
indiscreet ;  generous  almost  to  a  fault,  he  allowed 
himself  to  come  under  obligations  beyond  his 
means ;  and  so  his  estate  became  heavily  encum- 
bered. The  Count's  own  habits  were  anything 
but  self-indulgent,  immediate  personal  expenses 
not  exceeding  fifty  pounds  a  year.  *  No  one 
could  be  farther  removed  than  Zinzendorf  from 
hypocrisy,  and  from  attempts  at  concealing  his 
own  defects.  Once  perceived  by  himself,  his 

'"No  one  can  say,"  he  remarked  late  in  life,  "that  I  hare 
made  myself  rich.  For  many  years  I  have  not  been  worth  a 
hundred  Thalers  at  one  time." 


IJSCT.H.]  MISUNDEKSTOOD  AND   CALUMNIATED.        63 

errors  and  mistakes  were  readily  acknowledged. 
He  exhibited  an  unusual  combination  of  gentle 
kindliness  and  firmness.  Like  Athanasius  contra 
mundum,  Zinzendorf,  in  matters  of  principle  and 
of  conscience,  fulfilled  the  family  motto,  "  I  yield 
to  none ;  neither  to  one,  nor  to  all."  '  "  If  God 
will  employ  me  in  his  kingdom,  I  will  bid  defiance 
to  the  whole  world  ; "  so  he  spoke,  so  he  acted. 
He  was  not  a  vehement  disputant,  but  usually 
respected  the  opinions  of  others;  and  for  a  man 
in  his  position,  not  averse  to  the  exercise  of  power, 
nor  to  the  energetic  maintenance  of  official  juris- 
diction, he  was  unusually  tolerant.  A  friend  of 
religious  liberty  and  an  enemy  of  persecution,  his 
sympathies  in  behalf  of  the  injured  were  always 
prompt. 

Never  was  a  man  more  thoroughly  calumniated. 
Good  men  sometimes  distrusted  and  abused  him ; 
while  the  enemies  of  a  cross-bearing  piety  poured 
forth  streams  of  envenomed  libels.  "  It  was  just 
as  it  frequently  happens,"  said  Bishop  Spangen- 
berg,  "  in  small  towns,  when  any  one  cries  '  Fire ! ' 
many  people  run  out  of  their  houses  into  the 
streets  and  also  cry  '  Fire ! '  often  without  know- 
ing whether  there  is  a  fire,  or  where  it  is."  The 
Bishop  counted  up  accusations  amounting  to 
more  than  seventeen  hundred,  which,  together 
with  the  answers  and  appendices,  were  printed 

1  Ich  weiche  nicht,  nicht  einem,  nicht  alien. 


64  MOEAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LEOT.II. 

in  three  quarto  volumes  (1751).  King  Freder- 
ick William  of  Prussia,  having  been  prejudiced 
against  him,  made  personal  investigation  con- 
tinuing through  five  days,  and  then  declared  that 
the  Count's  only  crime  was  that,  being  a  person 
of  noble  rank,  he  had  devoted  himself  to  the 
ministry.  "  The  devils  in  hell,"  said  the  mon- 
arch, "  could  not  have  fabricated  worse  lies." 
"  Towers  are  measured,"  says  a  Chinese  prov- 
erb, "  by  their  shadows,  and  great  men  by  those 
who  are  envious  of  them." 

But  how  did  Zinzendorf  bear  slander?  While 
few  have  encountered  a  greater  amount  of  de- 
traction, still  fewer  have  borne  it  with  a  temper 
more  truly  Christian.  Personal  attacks  he  passed 
by,  to  repel  attacks  upon  the  loyalty  of  Herrn- 
hut  and  upon  truth  and  evangelical  Christian- 
ity. As  regards  the  intrusion  of  civil  govern- 
ment into  the  domain  of  religious  belief,  he  was 
far  in  advance  of  his  times ;  and,  naturally, 
advocates  of  the  divine  right  of  kings  and 
the  union  of  Church  and  State,  pronounced  his 
views  to  be  subversive  of  the  S.tate.  Even  a  ten 

* 

years'  banishment  from  his  estates  and  from 
Herrnhut,  the  center  of  his  official  and  affection- 
ate interest,  procured  through  false  accusations 
by  his  enemy,  Count  Briihl,  called  forth  no  invec- 
tives and  no  wailings.  Reputation  might  suffer; 
character  shone  all  the  brighter.  His  forbearance 
and  meekness  under  injuries  were  truly  Christ- 


iBCT.ii.]  MISUNDERSTOOD  AND  CALUMNIATED.         65 

like ;  and  he  was  finally  vindicated.  In  the 
drawing-room  of  Hennersdorf,  there  met,  in  the 
year  1749,  a  Royal  Commission  sent  down  by 
the  Saxon  government  at  Zinzendorf's  request. 
It  was  the  third  commission  of  the  kind.  Every 
facility  was  afforded  for  inquiry  into  the  doc- 
trines and  manner  of  life  at  Herrnhut,  and  into 
the  Count's  relations  to  the  Brethren.  As  in 
each  previous  instance,  Zinzendorf  and  the  Mora- 
vians were  completely  exonerated;  and  one  of 
his  bitterest  opponents,  who  had  publicly  ma- 
ligned him,  became  an  ardent  friend. 

It  should  be  stated,  however,  that  the  Count 
lived  and  acted  under  much  excitement;  that 
his  mental  operations  were  rapid ;  his  decisions 
quickly  formed ;  and,  whatever  might  stand  in 
the  way,  he  went  straight  to  the  execution  of 
them.  Occasional  excess  and  indiscretion  were 
matters  of  course.  But  all  men  of  strong  char- 
acter and  of  independent  opinions  must  have 
peculiarities,  not  to  say  eccentricities,  in  the  eye 
of  the  average  man. '  Men  devoid  of  genius, 
phlegmatic,  governed  by  selfish  prudence  or  by 
the  dominant  worldliness  of  that  age,  were  sure 
to  discern  only  singularities  in  his  conduct.  To 
turn  one's  back  on  the  gayeties  of  court,  surren- 
dering civil  dignities,  making  one's  self  all  things 


1  //  n'appartient  qu'aux  grands  hommes  d'avoir  de  grands  dtfauts. 
La  Rochefoucauld. 


66  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.II. 

to  all  men  that  he  might  save  some,  was  too 
apostolic  and  too  strange  a  thing  then  not  to  be 
deemed  a  proof  of  mental  unsoundness.  To  the 
average  Christian  in  any  decayed  church  such  a 
character  will  seem  an  offensive  enigma.  Thanks 
that  in  our  day  it  is  no  anomaly  for  a  nobleman 
to  devote  himself  to  evangelistic  labors  !  We  are 
glad  to  be  contemporary  with  Lord  Radstock, 
Lord  Carrick,  Lord  Kintore,  Lord  Polwarth,  Lord 
Alfred  Churchill,  brother  of  the  Duke  of  Marl- 
borough,  Lord  Adalbert  Cecil,  brother  of  the 
Marquis  of  Exeter,  and  the  Earl  of  Cavan,  who, 
though  unordained,  have  engaged  in  the  work  of 
preaching. 

Preeminently  was  Zinzendorf  a  man  of  faith 
and  prayer;  but  devotion  to  Christ  is  the  chief 
jewel  in  that  crown  which  must  be  awarded  to 
him.  Intimate  communion  with  the  Lord  Jesus 
and  loyalty  to  him  characterized  the  Count  from 
childhood  onward.  At  the  dawn  of  manhood  he 
wrote:  "I  would  rather  be  despised  and  hated 
for  the  sake  of  Jesus,  than  be  beloved  for  my  own 
sake."  At  a  later  period :  "  I  am,  as  ever,  a  poor 
sinner,  a  captive  of  eternal  love,  running  by  the 
side  of  His  triumphal  chariot,  and  have  no  desire 
to  be  anything  else  as  long  as  I  live."  "  I  have 
one  passion,"  he  exclaims  in  a  sermon  at  Herrn- 
hut,  "  and  it  is  He,  He  alone !  "  —  a  motto  which 
the  late  Professor  Tholuck,  on  entering  the  de- 
partment of  Divinity  at  Halle,  adopted  as  his 


LKCT.IIO  RULING  MOTIVES.  67 

own  —  Ich  liaV  eine  Passion,  und  die  est  Er, 
nur  Er.  Toil  and  obloquy  could  not  make  him 
other  than  a  happy  man.  As  on  his  journey  to 
the  Russian  Province  of  Livonia  so  might  he 
often  have  testified :  "  All  the  way  to  Riga  I 
swam  in  peace  and  joy  in  the  Lord,  and  walked 
on  the  shores  of  the  Baltio  with  a  delighted 
heart." 

Such  was  Count  Zinzendorf,  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  personages  of  modern  times.  Unos- 
tentatious in  spirit,  his  life  dramatic,  he  was  the 
Protestant  Loyola  of  that  day ;  in  his  remarkable 
career  supremely  devoted  to  the  only  Mediator 
between  God  and  men.  He  was  founder  and 
leader,  true  to  one  high  aim  from  childhood  till 
the  day  of  his  death,  at  threescore  years  (1760). 
Ignatius  Loyola  once  said  to  Xavier :  "  Eternity 
alone,  Francis,  is  sufficient  for  such  a  heart  as 
yours ;  its  kingdom  of  glory  alone  is  worthy  of 
it.  Be  ambitious;  be  magnanimous;  but  level 
at  the  loftiest  mark."  Moved  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  Nicholas  von  Zinzendorf,  when  a  youth  of 
nineteen,  could  say:  "Eternity  alone  fills  my 
thoughts;"  and  at  the  same  age,  amidst  the 
seductions  of  foreign  travel,  he  adopts  for  his 
motto  ^EternitatL ' 

We  turn  to  the  Count's  more  immediate 
part  in  Moravian  evangelistic  movements.  That 

1  Le  Comte  de  Zinzendorf,  par  Felix  Bovet.    Liv.  Prem. 


68  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.II. 

which  gave  unity  and  grandeur  to  his  life  was 
an  absorbing,  persistent  missionary  zeal.  While 
in  the  family  of  Professor  Franke  at  Halle,  he 
had  opportunities  to  hear  religious  intelligence, 
and  occasional  opportunities  to  become  acquaint- 
ed with  missionaries.  From  the  time  of  entering 
school  in  Halle,  at  ten  years  of  age,  he  formed 
successive  associations  of  youths  like-minded  with 
himself,  one  of  which  took  the  name,  Senfkorn- 
Orden — "The  Order  of  the  Grain  of  Mustard- 
Seed."  Its  members  pledged  themselves  to  con- 
fess Christ  faithfully,  to  exercise  love  toward 
their  neighbors,  and  to  seek  the  conversion  of 
others,  both  Jews  and  the  heathen.  The  badge 
of  the  Senfkorn-Orden  was  a  shield,  with  an 
Ecce  Homo,  and  the  inscription,  "  His  wounds 
our  healing."  Among  their  insignia  was  a  ring 
with  this  motto,  "  None  of  us  liveth  to  himself 
alone."  The  very  first  article  of  that  youthful 
confederation  shows  the  bent  of  his  heart,  and 
was  a  prophecy  of  his  future :  "  The  members 
of  our  society  will  love  the  whole  human  family." 
During  the  stay  of  our  young  Count  in  Holland, 
he  was  making  inquiries  about  unevangelized 
nations.  In  the  history  of  foreign  missions  is 
there  a  fact  more  significant  than  that,  years 
before  Herrnhut  had  name  or  existence,  a  lad 
of  fifteen,  in  a  German  University  town,  should 
be  divinely  led  to  entertain  such  thoughts  — 
thoughts  so  foreign  to  the  prevailing  church  spirit 


WOT.  ii.]         EARLY  MISSIONARY  INTEREST.  69 

of  that  period,  and  usually  so  foreign  to  this 
period  of  life,  especially  among  the  class  in  society 
to  which  young  Zinzendorf  belonged  ? 

Noteworthy,  also,  is  the  fact  of  a  coincidence 
in  the  year  1715.  That  was  the  year  when  a 
revival  breath  from  heaven  passed  simultaneously 
over  towns  wholly  disconnected  and  remote  from 
one  another,  in  Moravia  and  Bohemia.  The  all- 
wise  God  had  Herrnhut  in  mind ;  and,  in  his 
gracious  designs,  Herrnhut  was  to  be  the  cradle 
of  missions.  The  men,  humble,  ill-informed, 
whom  Divine  Providence  was  preparing  to  guide 
thither  as  exiles,  would  require  the  influence  of 
a  superior,  cultured,  consecrated  mind,  so  broad- 
ened as  to  take  the  headship  of  a  new  community 
which  was  to  have  its  seat  in  Upper  Lusatia,  but 
to  have  its  missions  at  the  ends  of  the  earth.  For 
a  prepared  people,  a  prepared  leader  would  be 
needed.  At  the  very  hour  of  spiritual  quicken- 
ing in  those  Tzech  towns,  this  German  youth  of 
noble  birth  and  high  promise  is  under  an  inward 
impulse  to  attempt  the  salvation  of  many  souls ; 
and  with  a  companion  like-minded,  the  Baron 
von  Watteville,  he  enters  into  a  covenant  con- 
cerning the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  and  espe- 
cially such  heathen  as  no  one  else  would  regard. 
For  that  period  they  were  the  men  of  the  Will- 
iamstown  haystack. 

When  Zinzendorf  married  it  was  "in  the  Lord," 
and  with  the  concentrated  purpose  of  making 


70  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LBCT.II. 

domestic  life  auxiliary  to  his  well-defined  Chris- 
tian aim.  Concerning  the  Countess  about  to 
become  his  fiancSe,  he  wrote  :  "  She  will  have  to 
cast  all  ideas  of  rank  and  quality  to  the  winds,  as 
I  have  done ;  for  they  are  not  things  of  divine 
institution,  but  inventions  of  human  vanity.  If 
she  wishes  to  aid  me  she  must  give  herself  to 
what  is  the  sole  object  of  my  life;  namely,  to 
win  souls  to  Christ,  and  that  in  the  midst  of 
contempt  and  reproach."  Upon  their  affiance 
they  covenanted  to  stand  ready,  at  a  moment's 
•warning  from  the  Lord,  to  enter  upon  mission 
work,  prepared  to  meet  all  the  obloquy  it  in- 
volved. '  In  the  Countess  Erdmuth  Dorothea, 
sister  of  his  friend  Henry  XXIX,  Count  of  Reuss, 
Zinzendorf  found  one  fully  in  accord  with  his  own 
religious  sympathies,  and  fitted  to  cooperate  in 
the  noble  work  before  him.  Like  his  grandfather, 
who,  in  leaving  Austria  for  the  truth's  sake,  left 
earthly  possessions  behind  him,  he  himself  accept- 
ed the  royal  mandate  of  banishment  (1736)  in 
the  firm  belief  that  God's  providence  would  make 
his  exile  subservient  to  the  interests  of  the  church 
and  to  the  spread  of  the  gospel.  The  result  con- 
firmed his  conviction.  "That  place,"  said  he, 
giving  utterance  to  a  beautiful  sentiment — '"that 

1  The  covenant  entered  into  with  his  bride,  on  the  day  of 
marriage,  ran  thus:  Auf  des  Herrn  Wink  alle  Stunden  den  Pil- 
gerstab  in  die  Hand  zu  nehmen,  und  zu  den  Heiden  zu  gehen,  um 
ihnen  den  Heiland  zu  predigen. 


LKT.II.]  FIKST  MISSION.  71 

place  is  our  proper  home  where  we  have  the 
greatest  opportunity  of  laboring  for  our  Sav- 
iour. Now  we  must  collect  a  missionary  con- 
gregation, and  train  laborers  to  go  forth  into  all 
the  world  and  preach  Christ  and  his  salvation." 
An  educational  institution  was  established  in 
the  Wetterau  (1739),  and  it  called  forth  Zin- 
zendorf's  hearty  interest.  It  had  special  refer- 
ence to  mission  work,  and  in  his  congregation 
were  forty  students  from  Jena,  the  greater  part 
of  whom  became  missionaries  or  preachers  at 
home. 

The  year  (1727}  in  which  Zinzendorf  obtained 
leave  of  absence  from  the  Court  of  Saxony,  and 
devoted  himself  more  entirely  to  the  interests  of 
the  Unitas  Fratrum,  was  to  them  a  year  of  mem- 
orable refreshing  from  on  high;  and  also  the  year 
when  four  evangelistic  movements  were  made  by 
them  on  the  Continent  of  Europe  —  to  Voigtland, 
Saalfeld,  Denmark  and  Hungary.  The  next  year 
more  distant  countries,  Lapland,  Turkey  and 
Ethiopia,  are  spoken  of.  The  practicability  of 
evangelizing  Greenlanders,  negro  slaves  and  other 
rude  and  remote  peoples,  is  discussed ;  and  though 
no  encouragement  appears  to  present  itself,  the 
Count  feels  sure  that  a  door  will  be  opened  to 
them  into  heathendom.  Two  or  more  years  later 
the  Count  revisits  Copenhagen  at  the  coronation 
of  Christian  VI  of  Denmark  —  with  whom,  as 
with  many  of  the  royal  houses  of  Germany,  he 


72  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  CLECT-II. 

was  connected  by  marriage  —  and  one  result  is 
that  information  comes  to  Herrnhut  which  deeply 
interests  certain  members  of  the  Unity.  After 
hearing  those  statements,  a  young  man,  Leonhard 
Dober,  cannot  sleep  that  night,  so  deeply  has  he 
been  impressed  by  the  thought  of  a  call  to  mis- 
sion work  in  St.  Thomas.  Another  young  man, 
Tobias  Leupold,  is  also  moved,  independently  of 
his  friend  Dober,  to  consecrate  himself  to  this 
work.  The  -two  men  were  at  the  time  working 
with  pick  and  spade  on  the  Hutberg;  and,  having 
first  earnestly  sought  divine  guidance,  they  made 
known  their  thoughts  to  one  another.  The  even- 
ing of  the  same  day,  and  before  communicating 
their  desire  to  any  one  else,  Dober  and  Leupold, 
with  a  company  who  are  accustomed  to  go  round 
the  village  singing  hymns,  pass  Zinzendorf 's  door. 
The  Count  comes  to  the  door  with  a  clerical 
friend, '  then  visiting  him,  to  whom  he  remarks : 
"  Sir,  among  these  brethren  there  are  missionaries 
to  the  heathen  in  St.  Thomas,  Greenland,"  etc. 
This  coincidence  leads  the  two  young  men  to 
make  known  their  thoughts  to  the  Count  by 
letter,  who  in  turn  encourages  them,  recommend- 
ing that  the  matter  be  committed  to  the  Lord  for 
direction.  The  spirit  which  originated  the  "Or- 
der of  the  Grain  of  Mustard-Seed "  has  not 
abated,  but  is  about  to  bring  forth  its  first  foreign 

1  Pastor  Schaffer  of  Gorlitz. 


MOT.  no  FIEST  MISSION.  73 

fruit.  In  their  letter,  the  names  not  attached, 
communicated  to  the  congregation,  they  avow 
their  readiness  to  sacrifice  life  in  the  service  of 
Christ,  and,  if  need  be,  sell  themselves  into  bond- 
age, in  order  that  they  might  save  one  soul. 
From  this  declaration  has  arisen  the  traditional 
statement  that  some  of  the  Brethren  actually  sold 
themselves  as  slaves  in  order  to  gain  access  to 
that  abject  class  —  a  transaction  which  never 
occurred. ' 

The  proposal  of  the  two  young  men  was  not 
at  first  received  with  any  marked  favor  by  the 
church  generally,  who  deemed  it  at  least  prema- 
ture. So  was  the  proposition  of  William  Carey, 
sixty  years  afterwards,  to  consider  "  the  duty  of 
Christians  to  attempt  the  spread  of  the  gospel 
among  heathen  nations,"  and  Dr.  Ryland  ex- 
claimed, "  Young  man,  sit  down  !  "  In  Scotland 
the  opinion  was  publicly  expressed  (1796)  that 
the  General  Assembly  ought  decisively  to  oppose 
the  formation  of  missionary  societies.  When  tjie 
American  Board  was  formed  (1810),  the  prevail- 
ing sentiment  among  Congregational  churches 
proved  to  be  adverse  to  any  such  scheme.  Simi- 
lar was  the  case  with  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  1816-1819.  The  earliest  of  those  just 

1  A  statement  to  that  effect  has  often  been  made.  Even  so 
careful  a  writer  as  Prof.  H.  B.  Hackett  says :  "  Some  of  the 
Moraviaji  missionaries  sold  themselves  into  slavery  that  they 
might  preach  to  slaves."  See  Lange  on  Philemon,  28. 


74  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS. 

named,  however,  that  of  the  English  Baptists, 
was  more  than  half  a  century  after  German  Mo- 
ravians had  demonstrated  the  practicability  of 
success  in  this  line  of  Christian  effort. 

The  Count's  evangelistic  zeal  was  far  beyond 
that  of  his  period,  and  especially  as  regards  men  of 
his  own  rank.  "Thanks,"  said  a  contemporary 
of  his  in  England,  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon, 
"thanks  for  the  letter  m  in  that  passage,  'Not 
many  noble  are  called.'"  Among  Zinzendorf's 
countrymen  it  had  not  indeed  been  true  that  not 
any  noblemen  stood  forth  conspicuously  as  wit- 
nesses for  Christ.  There  was  Christopher,  Duke 
of  Wiirtemberg,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  a  man 
who  loved  God's  Word,  who  loved  prayer,  and 
sought  the  highest  welfare  of  his  people  ;  and  at 
the  same  period,  Frederick  III,  Elector  Palatine, 
deservedly  surnamed  the  Pious.  The  seventeenth 
century  presents  us  another  Prince,  rightfully 
called  the  Pious  —  Ernst,  Duke  of  Saxony.  We 
must,  however,  advance  to  the  eighteenth  century 
to  find  a  nobleman  dedicating  his  entire  time  and 
possessions  to  the  service  of  our  Saviour,  and  mak- 
ing it  the  sole  aim  of  life,  by  personal  efforts,  at 
home  and  abroad,  to  win  the  largest  possible 
number  of  souls  to  Christ,  and  that,  too,  in  a 
period  of  general  religious  decline,  and  for  many 
years  a  time  of  war.  From  childhood  onward, 
lip  and  life  were  thus  consecrated.  No  other 
German,  neither  Gossner  of  Berlin,  nor  Harms  of 


LECT.II.]  TITLED   CHRISTIANS.  75 

Hermannsburg,  has  been  engaged  in  sending  out 
missionaries  to  so  many  countries.  In  his  day 
he  was  the  John  Howard  of  foreign  evangelism. 
If  called  upon  to  name  an  utterance  of  modern 
times,  which,  in  view  of  all  circumstances,  indi- 
cates the  broadest,  clearest,  most  sympathetic 
apprehension  of  apostolic  evangelism,  should  we 
not  repeat  this  one  of  the  Count?  l  — "  The  whole 
earth  is  the  Lord's;  men's  souls  are  all  his;  I 
am  debtor  to  all."  Well  entitled  is  Zinzendorf 's 
bust  to  the  place  it  holds  among  the  great  men 
of  Germany,  in  the  Walhalla  near  Ratisbon. 
With  the  closing  words  of  his  epitaph  let  this 
lecture  close :  "  He  was  ordained  that  he  should 
bring  forth  fruit,  and  that  his  fruit  should 
remain." 

-*— 

1  At  a  Church  Conferenence  in  Holland,  1741. 


LECTURE  III. 


MISSION  TO  TEE  WEST  INDIES. 


MISSION  TO   THE  WEST  INDIES. 


THE  birth  of  great  men  and  the  beginning  of 
great  movements  will  make  any  year  notewor- 
thy. Seventeen  hundred  and  thirty-two  gave  to 
America  George  Washington ;  to  France  Lalande, 
the  celebrated  astronomer ;  to  Germany  Adelung, 
the  eminent  philologist,  and  Haydn,  the  eminent 
composer.  In  the  history  of  gospel  propagation 
there  are  two  events  of  special  significance  which 
take  us  back  to  the  Fatherland  and  to  the  year 
just  named.  It  was  in  seventeen  hundred  and 
thirty-two  that  the  missionary  Schultze  completed 
a  translation  of  the  New  Testament  into  Hindu- 
stani, and  that  the  first  foreign  enterprise  of  the 
Moravians  had  its  rise.  Only  ten  years  had 
elapsed  since  the  earlier  fugitives  from  Bohemia 
settled  at  Herrnhut,  and  their  census  showed  a 
population  of  but  six  hundred  souls,  old  and 
young  —  a  number  exceeded  by  the  membership 
in  some  of  our  local  churches;  yet — few,  poor, 
isolated  as  they  were  —  they  undertook  a  mission 
beyond  sea. 

A  negro  slave  of  Cortez,  finding  three  grains 
of  wheat  among  the  rice  which  had  been  brought 
from  Europe  to  provision  the  Spanish  army,  was 

(79) 


80  MOEAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.  m. 

the  first  to  introduce  that  valuable  product  into 
New  Spain ;  a  slave  also  'became  the  occasion  of 
introducing  the  incorruptible  seed  of  the  gospel 
into  the  West  Indies.  When,  as  mentioned  in 
the  last  lecture,  Count  Zinzendorf  was  at  Copen- 
hagen, attending  the  coronation  of  King  Christian 
VI,  some  of  his  attendants  met  a  negro  named 
Anthony,  in  the  service  of  Count  Lauervig,  who 
dwelt  upon  the  sad  condition  of  Africans  in  St. 
Thomas,  and  particularly  that  of  his  sister,  who 
was  desirous  of  being  taught  the  true  religion. 
This  man  afterwards  visited  Herrnhut,  and  a 
simultaneous  desire  was  kindled  independently 
in  the  hearts  of  two  young  men  to  devote  them- 
selves to  gospel  work  among  the  slaves.  One  of 
the  two,  Leonhard  Dober,.was  a  potter  by  trade; 
and  with  him  was  associated  David  Nitschmarm, 
a  carpenter,1  who  was  to  accompany  Dober  to 
the  field,  and  then  return.  Their  funds  amounted 
to  a  trifle  over  three  dollars  apiece.  Count  Ziu- 
zendorf  took  them  in  his  carriage  as  far  as  Baut- 
zen, and  then,  with  a  blessing,  bade  them  God- 
speed. A  bundle  on  the  back  their  only  luggage, 
they  set  out  thence  on  foot  for  the  capital  of 
Denmark,  a  distance  of  six  hundred  miles.  Pious 
persons,  on  whom  they  called  by  the  way,  tried 
to  dissuade  them,  the  devout  Countess  of  Stol- 


1  The  Rev.  E.  Garbett  speaks  mistakenly  as  if  both  of  them 
were  potters  by  trade. 


MOT.  in.]  DOBEE   AND   NITSCHMANN.  81 

berg  at  Wernigerode,  a  third  of  the  distance  to 
Copenhagen,  being  the  only  one  who  spoke  an 
encouraging  word.  But  special  service  for  God 
never  fails  of  special  help  from  God.  They  reach 
Copenhagen,  though  only  to  meet  with  great  diffi- 
culties at  first,  ridicule  and  opposition,  very  much 
as,  fourteen  years  before  (1718),  Hans  Egede  did 
at  Bergen,  while  trying  to  find  his  way  to  Green- 
land. They  were  told  that  no  captain  would 
take  them  on  board  his  ship  ;  that,  if  they  reached 
St.  Thomas,  they  would  be  unable  to  support 
themselves.  Frightful  stories  were  related  about 
the  ferocity  of  the  Caribs.  The  two  Brethren  did 
not  argue  the  matter,  and  made  but  little  effort 
to  answer  objections ;  they  simply  kept  quietly 
about  their  business  of  trying  to  reach  the  West 
Indies,  ready  to  go  into  slavery  themselves  in 
order  to  reach  the  negroes,  as  Anthony  had  repre- 
sented would  be  necessary.  An  unseen  hand  was 
guiding,  the  Adorable  Comforter  was  sustaining 
these  devoted  men.  Their  Christian  constancy 
won  favor,  and  at  last  efficient  sympathy.  The 
royal  chaplains  became  interested ;  so  did  a  few 
other  high  officials,  who  gave  enough  to  pay  their 
fare  out,  as  well  as  to  procure  tools  for  carrying 
on  their  trades.  Some  members  of  the  royal 
family,  among  them  the  queen,  lent  their  aid. 
The  Princess  Amelia,  unsolicited,  gave  them 
money  toward  their  expenses,  and  a  large  Dutch 
Bible,  which  proved  a  seasonable  gift;  for,  being 

6 


82  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.III. 

refused  passage  on  any  Danish  ship,  they  were 
compelled  to  avail  themselves  of  one  from  Hol- 
land, and  embarked  October  8,  1732.  Here,  too, 
as  often,  the  good  hand  of  God  was  visible  in  the 
very  disappointment.  St.  Thomas  had  been  in 
possession  of  the  Netherlands ;  the  negroes  spoke 
Dutch,  though  an  imperfect  Dutch,  and  our  mis- 
sionaries now  had  opportunity,  during  their  voy- 
age, to  learn  the  language  which  would  be  re- 
quired in  their  work. 

I  need  not  say  that  the  West  India  Islands 
form  a  group  of  rare  interest ;  one  of  which,  the 
advanced  courier  of  a  new  world,  was  the  first  to 
greet  the  eye  of  Columbus.  Physical  aspect  and 
conditions  are  such  as  to  excite  the  imagination 
of  Europeans  even  at  the  present  day.  Here  are 
magnitude  and  prodigality  of  vegetable  forms 
quite  astonishing  to  men  from  the  temperate 
zones  —  palm-leaves,  one  of  which  will  cover  four 
persons ;  the  royal  palm  towering  sometimes  two 
hundred  feet  in  the  air ;  the  gigantic  cottouwood, 
whose  trunk  furnishes  a  canoe  for  fifty  and  even 
a  hundred  men.  One  of  the  canoes  measured  by 
Columbus  was  ninety-six  feet  in  length. 

The  great  mass  of  the  inhabitants  in  our  day 
are  negroes,  the  minority  being  European  plant- 
ers and  traders,  who  compose  only  seventeen  per 
cent  of  a  total  population  which  exceeds  three 
and  a  half  millions.  All  the  islands  except  Hay ti 
belong  to  European  powers;  three  of  them  to 


iBCT.iii.]  ST.  THOMAS.  83 

Denmark.  As  the  negro  man  Anthony  came 
from  St.  Thomas,  and  as  there  was  more  of  direct 
intercourse  between  Copenhagen  and  that  island 
than  any  other,  the  two  Moravians  naturally  went 
there.  St.  Thomas  belongs  to  the  cluster  of  Vir- 
gin Islands  which  form  a  connecting  link  between 
the  Greater  and  the  Less  Antilles — the  cluster 
numbering  about  fifty,  yet  having  an  aggregate 
area  short  of  two  hundred  square  miles.  St. 
Thomas  itself,  with  a  superficies  about  the  same 
as  an  average  New  England  town,  something  over 
twenty  square  miles,  and  a  population  of  over 
twenty  thousand,  has  a  precipitous  coast-line ;  is 
elevated  and  rugged;  not  particularly  fertile; 
not  well  supplied  with  water ;  indeed,  toward  the 
end  of  the  dry  season,  drinking-water  must  be 
brought  fi  oni  St.  Croix.  As  the  trees  are  sup- 
posed to  attract  showers,  no  man  is  allowed  to 
cut'  down  a  tree  even  on  his  own  estate.  At  the 
present  time,  some  of  the  great  European  steam- 
ship companies  make  it  a  center  for  their  oceanic 
lines. 

Dober  and  Nitschmann,  the  day  after  landing, 
went  in  search  of  Anthony's  sister,  ancl,  finding 
the  plantation  where  she  lived  with  her  husband 
and  younger  brother,  they  made  known  An- 
thony's salutation.  By  request,  they  opened  and 
read  his  letter  to  her,  in  which  occurred  the 
quotation :  "  This  is  life  eternal,  that  they  might 
know  thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ 


84  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.III. 

whom  thou  has  sent."  Beginning  then  and  there, 
they  preached  the  gospel  to  heathen  slaves  who 
gathered  round.  Though  the  message  was  in 
German-Dutch,  the  negroes  understood  the  drift 
of  it,  and  clapped  their  hands  for  joy.  They  had 
hitherto  supposed  that  good  things  were  only  for 
white  people.  While  casting  about  to  find  how 
they  might  live  at  the  smallest  cost,  a  planter, 
Mr.  Lorenzin,  invited  them  to  his  house.  Nitsch- 
mann,  as  a  carpenter,  was  able  to  support  himself 
and  his  associate ;  but  Dober,  unable  to  find  suit- 
able clay,  could  turn  his  trade  to  no  good  account. 
They  improved  every  opportunity  to  instruct  the 
blacks  in  divine  things,  and  among  those  early 
awakened  were  Anthony's  sister  and  her  husband. 
After  some  months,  Nitschmann,  according  to 
previous  arrangement,  returned  to  Europe,  but  he 
left  his  little  surplus  of  earnings  for  Dober's  sup- 
port. The  latter  was  for  a  while  employed  by 
Governor  Gardelin  as  tutor  to  his  children  and 
steward  of  his  household.  But  the  good  mission- 
ary became  satisfied  it  was  not  best  for  him  to 
fare  sumptuously,  and  devote  only  spare  moments 
to  the  work  of  the  Lord.  He  was  right ;  to  re- 
main in  that  comfortable  situation  would  have 
made  his  mission  a  failure.  Though  the  Gov- 
ernor parted  with  him  reluctantly,  Dober  left  his 
service,  and  hired  a  little  lodging  in  the  village 
of  Tappus, '  where  he  acted  as  watchman  on 

1  Taphuis  =  Taphouse. 


utd.  in.]  IMPRISONMENT.  85 

neighboring  plantations,  which,  with  some  other 
small  services,  enabled  him  to  procure  bread  and 
water.  He  was  now  free  to  work  for  the  Lord, 
and  the  Lord  blessed  him.  After  the  departure 
of  his  associate,  a  year  and  four  months  passed 
before  this  Christian  exile  heard  from  Herrnhut. 
While  he  is  sitting  by  a  watchfire  one  evening, 
suddenly  three  men  stand  before  him  —  one  of 
them  Tobias  Leupold,  the  intimate  friend  who 
joined  him  three  years  before  in  a  consecration 
to  the  foreign  work.  A  vessel  had  just  come  in, 
bringing  missionaries  from  Herrnhut,  destined 
for  this  and  the  neighboring  island  of  St.  Croix. 
An  appointment  as  General  Elder  at  Herrnhut 
obliged  Dober  to  return  to  Germany  (1735). 

After  a  while,  opposition  to  the  good  work  be- 
came pronounced  ;  all  intercourse  of  slaves  with 
their  teachers  was  rigorously  forbidden ;  and,  under 
false  accusations,  the  latter  were,  amidst  the  sighs 
and  tears  of  interested  slaves,  thrown  into  prison. 
On  starting  for  the  Fort  (October  22,  1738),  they 
sang  a  stanza  to  this  effect :  "  Mercy  is  our  guide ; 
Mercy  prepares  the  way.  Hope  opens  the  pros- 
pect of  future  bliss.  Be  firm  !  be  firm  ! "  The 
negroes  kept  up  their  meetings ;  they  thronged 
around  the  windows  of  the  jail,  and,  listening  to 
prayers  and  singing  within,  would  join  in  the 
same.  "  And  the  prisoners  heard  them."  Sud- 
denly Count  Zinzendorf,  ignorant  of  what  was 
going  on,  arrived  at  St.  Thomas  (1739)  with  a 


86  MOEAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLEcx.m. 

reinforcement,  and,  to  his  surprise,  found  all  the 
missionaries  in  confinement.  The  next  day,  after 
more  than  three  months  of  suffering,  they  were 
liberated,  with  apologies  for  their  imprisonment. 
In  the  course  of  a  very  few  days,  the  Count  made 
himself  sufficiently  familiar  with  the  Creole  lan- 
guage to  address  the  negroes,  and  to  write  some 
things  for  their  benefit.  But  he  became  the 
object  of  rancorous  enmity  among  "  certain  lewd 
fellows  of  the  baser  sort."  *  The  planters  raised 
a  tumult,  and  would  scatter  the  negroes  by  whip- 
ping and  shooting  them.  One  thing  which- they 
alleged  was,  that  the  blacks  were  likely  to  become 
better  Christians  than  themselves 2  —  an  attain- 
ment not  very  improbable,  and  which  would  not 
necessarily  imply  any  great  moral  elevation  above 
barbarism.  It  was  during  this  visit  to  the  West 
Indies  that  Zinzendorf  composed  one  of  his  best- 
known  hymns,  consisting  of  -thirty-three  stanzas, 3 
a  few  of  which  are  familiar  to  all  through  John 
Wesley's  translation,  beginning : 

"Jesus,  thy  blood  and  righteousness." 

He  was  highly  gratified  at  the  extent  to  which 
Christian  labor  had  proved  effectual.     There  were 

1  Wir  waren  keinen    Tag   unseres   Lebens   sicher.      Sie   wolten 
Herrn  Carstens  und  mich  todschlagen.    Zinzendorf. 

2  The  same  objection  to  Zinzendorf  and  the  Moravians  was 
raised  in  Germany :  Sie  wollen  die  Leute  zu  besseren  Christen  ma~ 
chen  als  wir  sind. 

3  Christi  Blut  und  Gerechtigkeit. 


LBCT.  mo  IMPRISONMENT.  87 

at  that  time  nine  hundred  concerned  in  some 
measure  for  the  salvation  of  their  souls,  and  the 
number  was  afterward  largely  increased.  A  part 
of  them  came  every  evening  to  be  taught,  all 
instruction  being,  of  course,  oral ;  but  the  general 
gathering  was  on  Saturday  evening,  and  they  often 
remained  in  session  till  seven  o'clock  Sunday 
morning.  Converts  as  well  as  teachers  suffered 
cruel  persecution ;  bonds  and  stripes  to  the  last 
degree  of  severity  were  endured.  The  Moravians, 
obliged  to  work  hard  by  day  for  their  own  sup- 
port, at  night  would  teach  the  slaves.  Such  being 
their  devotedness,  was  it  strange  that,  by-and-by, 
on  one  occasion  forty,  and  on  another  ninety 
persons  should  receive  baptism;  and  that  three 
hundred  and  eighty  should  desire  at  one  time 
to  be  enrolled  as  catechumens?  Governors  and 
masters  found,  at  length,  that  the  Christian  reli- 
gion was  not  a  bad  thing  among  slaves ;  for  they 
were  more  easily  managed  and  their  price  was 
enhanced.  A  Wes"t  India  proprietor,  in  the  course 
of  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons,  stated  ex- 
pressly that  a  negro  member  of  the  Brethren's 
Church  had  a  considerably  higher  market  value 
than  an  ordinary  slave.  So  deeply  had  the 
preached  word  taken  effect  that  Frederick  Mar- 
tin, a  most  excellent  missionary,  could  write 
(1740)  :  "  Hardly  a  day  passes  on  which  we  are 
not  visited  by  persons  bemoaning  their  sins  and 
crying  for  mercy.  When  taking  a  walk,  we  hear 


88  MOEAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [uwT.ni. 

them  pray  and  weep,  one  in  a  sugar-field,  another 
behind  a  bush,  and  a  third  behind  his  hut,  implor- 
ing the  Lord  to  cleanse  them  from  their  sins  and 
pollutions."  One  secret  of  Moravian  successes 
here  and  elsewhere  is,  that  the  missionaries  enter 

I  heartily  into  their  work,  and  become  deeply  inter- 
ested in  those  for  whom  they  labor.  The  last 
letter  written  by  one  of  them1  on  St.  Thomas 
(1853)  gives  utterance  to  what  is  generally  true 
among  them :  "  Never  did  I  love  children  as 
much  as  these  poor  negro  children,  and  I  should 
be  very  well  satisfied  to  stay  with  them  all  my 
life  long."  Without  such  affection,  no  great 

/  benefits  need  be  looked  for  in  any  mission. 

At  a  later  period,  the  number  of  Roman  Catho- 
lic proprietors  increased,  and  then  the  good  work 
was  greatly  hindered.  Such  masters  would  allow 
no  respite  to  their  servants  on  Saturday  evening, 
and  even  compelled  them  to  work  on  the  Lord's 
Day.  Hurricanes,  drought  and  pestilence  brought 
suffering  and  death.  Scarcely  a  year  passed  with- 
out carrying  some  of  the  hard-working  band  of 
Moravians  to  the  grave.  In  the  course  of  a  few 
weeks,  three  brethren  and  three  sisters  were 
stricken  fatally  by  a  contagious  fever  (1817),  but 
their  ranks  were  kept  filled.  When  this  mor- 
tality was  announced  at  Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania, 
eight  persons  volunteered  cheerfully  the  same  day 
for  St.  Thomas. 

1  Bremer.     See  Period.  Accounts,  XXI,  42. 


LECT.  ni.] 


ST.    CKOIX.  89 


Sailing  forty-five  miles  south  from  St.  Thomas, 
we  come  to  St.  Croix  or  Santa  Cruz,  the  most 
southern  and  largest  of  the  Virgin  Islands,  having 
an  area  three  times  that  of  the  island  just  left, 
and  a  population  of  twenty-three  thousand.  It  is 
comparatively  flat.  It  had  been  held  successively 
by  the  English,  Dutch,  Spaniards  and  French;  the 
latter  selling  it  in  1734  to  the  West  India  and 
Guiana  Company  at  Copenhagen.  Count  von 
Pless,  First  Chamberlain  at  the  Danish  Court, 
bought  six  plantations,  and  applied  to  the  Breth- 
ren at  Herrnhut  for  men  who  should  act  as  over- 
seers of  his  property,  and  at  the  same  time  labor 
for  the  religious  welfare  of  the  negroes.  Zinzen- 
dorf  saw  at  once  the  objectionable  features  of  that 
arrangement,  but  he  was  overruled.  Eighteen 
colonists,  fourteen  men  and  four  women,  em- 
barked (1734).  The  Brethren  were  confined  to 
a  room  below  the  second  deck,  only  ten  feet 
square,  and  so  low  that  they  could  not  even  sit 
upright.  Owing  to  stress  of  weather,  the  ship 
was  obliged  to  winter  in  a  port  of  Norway ;  and 
more  than  half  a  year  elapsed  before  they  reached 
St.  Thomas  on  their  way  to  St.  Croix.  The  te- 
dious voyage  injured  their  health ;  and,  during 
the  twelve  weeks  of  their  stay  on  St.  Thomas, 
several  of  them  died.  St.  Croix,  having  been 
deserted  for  nearly  forty  years  before  its  transfer 
to  Denmark,  was  overrun  with  underwood  and 
trees;  rank  vegetation,  rains  and  heat  rendered 


90  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  CLBCT.  ra. 

that  island  peculiarly  unhealthy;  so  that,  nine 
months  after  landing,  only  half  of  the  original 
eighteen  remained,  and  most  of  the  survivors 
were  prostrate  with  fever.  The  mixed  object  of 
the  company  led  naturally  to  divisions,  and  a 
portion  of  them  lost  their  spirituality.  Some 
good  was  effected,  yet  failure  stamped  the  enter- 
prise. Before  these  unfortunate  facts  became 
known  at  Herrnhut,  a  reinforcement  of  eleven 
persons  was  sent  out  (1735),  four  of  whom  died 
within  two  months  after  their  arrival,  and  the 
whole  enterprise  had  to  be  abandoned.  It  was 
in  view  of  so  many  untimely  graves  on  this  island, 
that  Zinzendorf,  mindful  that  the  blood  of  mar- 
tyrs is  the  seed  of  the  church,  sang  now  of  "  the 
seed  of  the  Ethiopian  race." '  But  some  of  the 
converted  negroes  of  St.  Thomas,  being  sold  to 
masters  in  St.  Croix,  spread  the  good  news  of 
salvation  among  their  fellow-slaves,  and  were  vis- 
ited by  Moravians  from  the  neighboring  islands. 
The  first  regular  mission,  as  such,  did  not  com- 
mence till  1740 ;  but  the  two  Brethren,  sent  for 
that  purpose,  suffered  shipwreck,  one  of  whom, 
seeing  his  companion  engulfed  in  the  waves,  could 
only  say :  "  Depart  in  peace,  beloved  brother." 
Another  relinquishment  became  necessary  (1742), 

1  Es  wurden  zehn  dahin  gesat, 

Als  waren  sie  verloren  ; 
Aufihren  Beeten  aber  steht  — 
Das  ist  die  Soot  der  Mohren. 


LBOT.  in.]  CONVERTS.  91 

followed  by  another  renewal  (1743) ;  and  in 
1744  the  first  cases  of  baptism  on  St.  Croix 
occurred. 

Calumny  is  something  which  ministers,  mission- 
aries, and  converts  have  met  with  in  all  ages.  As 
in  the  first  century,  Nero  tried  to  throw  the  blame 
of  a  nine  days'  conflagration  on  the  hated  Chris- 
tians, and,  in  the  fourth  century,  Galerius  charged 
incendiarism  on  them  when  a  fire  broke  out  in 
the  imperial  palace,  so  has  it  been  in  several 
rebellions  at  different  times  in  the  West  Indies. 
It  was  thus  on  St.  Croix  during  the  insurrec- 
tion of  the  negroes,  who  had  planned  to  massacre 
all  the  white  inhabitants,  Christmas  night,  1759. 
Malicious  persons  charged  some  of  the  baptized 
slaves  with  being  conspirators;  but  their  inno- 
cence was  fully  established.  During  the  violent 
disturbance  of  1878,  resulting  in  the  destruction 
of  more  than  fifty  estates  —  sugar-mills,  offices, 
houses  of  proprietors  and  managers,  with  their 
furniture  —  only  one  or  two  baptized  negroes 
were  implicated. 

Prosperity  finally  crowned  Christian  effort  on 
that  island.  Among  the  interesting  converts  was 
Cornelius,  a  master  mason,  a  man  of  excellent 
capacity,  who  could  speak  Creole,  Dutch,  German 
and  English.  With  great  difficulty  he  purchased 
the  freedom  of  himself  and  wife,  and  finally  that 
of  his  six  children.  For  seven-and-forty  years 
he  was  an  invaluable  assistant  in  the  mission; 


92  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [I.ECT  m. 

by  his  unwearied  faithfulness  night  and  day,  among 
negroes  on  the  scattered  plantations,  becoming 
spiritual  father  to  large  numbers  of  them.  White 
men  of  rank  and  good  education  not  unfrequently 
listened  with  pleasure  and  profit  to  his  preaching. 
When  past  fourscore,  he  called  his  children  and 
grandchildren  around  his  bed,  and  said :  "  If  you 
follow  this  advice  of  your  father,  my  joy  will  be 
complete  when  I  shall  see  you  all  again  in  bliss, 
and  be  able  to  say  to  our  Saviour,  '  Here,  Lord, 
is  thy  unworthy  Cornelius  and  the  children  whom 
thou  hast  given  me.'  I  am  sure  our  Saviour  will 
not  forsake  you ;  but,  I  beseech  you,  do  not  for- 
sake him."  A  colored  helper,  who  suffered  deep 
afflictions  (1862),  prayed  thus:  "Lord,  chastise 
us,  if  needful,  with  one  hand,  but  draw  us  nearer 
to  thee  with  the  other."  In  the  course  of  fifteen 
years,  fifty  Moravian  laborers  found  their  graves 
on  these  two  islands. 

Directly  east  from  St.  Thomas,  at  a  distance  of 
only  six  miles,  lies  the  island  of  St.  Jan,  or  St. 
John,  a  little  smaller  than  St.  Thomas,  compara- 
tively healthy,  and  having  only  one  town,  Chris- 
tiansburg.  The  whole  present  population  is 
about  a  thousand,  chiefly  free  negroes.  The 
mission  there  was  begun  at  the  solicitation  of 
a  gentleman  who  had  been  fellow-passenger 
with  Zinzendorf,  and  who  had  charge  of  several 
estates.  Brucker,  a  missionary,  settled  on  St. 
John  (1754),  and  success  attended  his  labors, 


LBCT.  III.] 


ST.  JOHN.  93 


though  the  congregations  never  became  so  large 
as  on  the  other  two  islands.  In  proportion  to 
the  whole  population,  however,  the  number  of 
converts  has  not  perhaps  been  exceeded  any- 
where else. 

We  have  now  glanced  at  these  three  islands 
which  constitute  the  only  Danish  possession  in 
the  West  Indies  —  St.  Thomas,  St.  Croix  and  St. 
John.  Like  the  home  dominion,  they  are  small, 
yet  have  been  among  the  best  cultivated  in  the 
whole  archipelago ;  and  the  same  is  perhaps  true 
as  regards  spiritual  husbandry  among  the  blacks. 
The  happy  results  of  such .  missionary  labor  are 
unquestionable.  One  of  the  colored  native  assist- 
ants, Abraham,  who  rendered  himself  specially 
useful  from  1740  onward  for  nearly  a  score  of 
years,  who  often  endured  cruelties  for  his  Chris- 
tian fidelity,  and  who  was  at  last  fatally  stabbed 
by  an  exasperated  negro,  could  write  :  "  I  thank 
the  Lord  that  we  now  see  what  we  never  vent- 
ured to  expect  —  that  we  are  members  of  a  living 
congregation  of  Jesus.  Formerly,  we  were  little 
better  than  the  beasts  of  the  field,  nor  even  pre- 
sumed to  think  that  there  was  mercy  in  store  for  the 
heathen.  We  adore  with  all  our  hearts  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  rest  entirely  on  his  love  and  grace." 
One  aged  woman,  who  had  been  sick,  and  was 
threatened  with  punishment  by  the  overseer,  say- 
ing, "  It  would  be  better  with  her  then,"  replied  : 
"  Master,  the  earth  on  which  I  must  stretch  my- 


94  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS. 

self  to  receive  blows  is  the  Lord's,  and,  if  you 
have  me  killed,  my  body  will  be  all  the  sooner  at 
rest ;  and  my  soul,  which  you  cannot  slay,  will 
go  to  the  enjoyment  of  blessedness  with  my  Lord 
Jesus." 

When  Leonhard  Dober  started  for  the  Danish 
West  Indies,  he  expressed  a  willingness  to  sacri- 
fice health,  liberty  and  life,  if  only  one  soul  might 
be  saved.  At  the  expiration  of  the  first  century, 
thirteen  thousand  three  hundred  and  thirty-three 
persons  had  been  admitted  to  the  communion  ; 
but  since  then  there  has  been  no  great  increase 
in  the  congregations,  for  by  that  time  the  blacks 
had  all  practically  come  under  missionary  instruc- 
tion, and  of  late  the  natural  .growth  of  the 
negro  population  has  been  trifling.  On  these 
three  islands  there  are  now  eight  stations,  four- 
teen missionaries,  six  hundred  and  twenty-five 
communicants,  while  the  whole  number  of  persons 
in  charge  is  four  thousand  three  hundred  and 
fourteen.  It  should  be  added  that  the  price  of 
the  staple  product,  sugar,  is  at  the  present  time 
very  low;  that  the  severe  drought  of  several 
years  past  has  destroyed  the  annual  crops ;  that 
many  estates  have  been  abandoned,  and  people 
have  moved  away.  It  is  stated  that  the  pro- 
prietors are  now  nearly  all  skeptics,  and  lead  lives 
of  extreme  immorality;  which  of  course  has  a 
damaging  effect  on  the  negroes,  who,  as  a  race, 
are  sensuous,  unreflecting,  and  with  but  little 


LKCT.  HI.]  JAMAICA.  95 

self-control.  Lying  and  stealing  were  habits  com- 
mon among  negroes  on  all  the  islands,  and  not 
easily  eradicated  —  habits  too  common  among  the 
same  race  in  our  Southern  States,  and  unfor- 
tunately not  restricted  to  that  color  line. 

A  sail  of  eight  hundred  miles  in  the  Caribbean 
Sea  westward  from  the  Virgin  Islands  brings  us 
to  Jamaica,  one  of  the  Greater  Antilles,  the 
largest  of  the  British  West  India  Islands,  yet 
only  as  large  as  Yorkshire,  England ;  an  ellipse 
in  shape ;  mountainous,  some  peaks  reaching  the 
height  of  seven  thousand  feet.  The  general  ap- 
pearance of  the  island  is  picturesque  in  a  high 
degree,  the  escarpments  of  the  rocks  being  often 
peculiarly  irregular  and  rugged.  Columbus,  in 
describing  the  island,  took  a  sheet  of  paper,  and, 
crumpling  it  in  his  hand,  laid  it  on  the  table  as  a 
model.  Jamaica,  especially  in  its  eastern  part, 
is  better  supplied  with  water  than  any  other  of 
the  West  India  Islands ;  it  has  more  than  a  hun- 
dred short  rivers,  which  must  have  suggested 
the  original  Indian  name,  Xaimaica,  "  Land  of 
Springs."  In  area  and  present  population,  it  is 
about  the  same  as  the  State  of  Connecticut. 

For  more  than  a  century  after  Jamaica  became 
an  appendage  of  the  British  crown,  almost  noth- 
ing was  done  to  Christianize  the  slaves ; l  but, 
only  twenty-two  years  after  the  first  Moravian 

1  Philippe's  Jamaica:  its  Past  and  Present  State,  279. 


96  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS. 

effort  among  the  Danish  Islands,  a  mission  was 
begun  here  (1754).  The  beginnings,  however,  of 
the  two,  were  quite  unlike.  A  slave  taken  to  the 
Danish  capital  was  the  occasion  of  the  one ;  two 
English  Christian  proprietors  solicited  the  other. 
Early  laborers  on  the  Virgin  Islands  met  with 
prevailing  contempt,  opposition  and  want ;  in 
Jamaica,  they  were  respected,  and  supplied  with 
much  that  was  needful.  In  the  former  there  was 
a  large  and  early  harvest ;  in  the  latter,  for  more 
than  half  a  century,  fruits  were  limited  and  unsat- 
isfactory. The  brothers,  Messrs.  William  Foster 
and  Joseph  Foster-Barham,  who  had  joined  the 
Moravians  in  England,  were  strongly  desirous 
of  having  religious  instruction  imparted  to  the 
negroes  on  their  estates ;  and,  during  the  four 
years  that  followed  the  arrival  of  the  first  mission- 
aries (1754-58),  the  value  of  land  presented  by 
them,  and  of  contributions  in  other  forms,  amount- 
ed to  twelve  thousand  dollars.  The  interest 
shown  by  these  brothers  in  the  good  work  called 
forth  the  ridicule  of  relatives,  and  derision  from 
other  proprietors.  The  estate  given  by  them  for 
a  Christian  purpose  led  naturally  to  methods  and 
relations  incompatible  with  the  best  interests  of 
Christian  labor.  As  in  the  first  colony  on  St. 
Croix,  here,  too,  was  a  great  mistake.  There  is 
such  a  thing  as  munificent  gifts,  even  from  truly 
religious  sources,  proving  more  detrimental,  if 
possible,  than  parsimony  would  be  in  the  same 


LECT.  HI.]  MISTAKES.  97 

quarters.  Large  pecuniary  patronage  is  a  severe 
test  even  of  the  better  type  of  spiritual  efforts. 
The  early  missionaries  to  Jamaica,  by  accepting 
so  much,  came  inevitably  to  be  regarded  as 
attache's  of  the  plantation,  as  belonging  to  the 
staff  of  officers  employed  by  the  master.  The 
overseer  would  complain  to  the  preacher  of  lazi- 
ness among  the  slaves,  and  expect  him  to  rebuke 
them.  The  missionaries  became  not  unnaturally 
in  a  measure  secularized ;  and  they  failed  to  iden- 
tify themselves  with  the  native  population,  a 
thing  indispensable  to  success.  Indeed,  so  far 
from  thinking  to  sell  themselves  into  bondage 
with  a  view  to  gaining  access  to  the  negroes,  they 
fell  into  the  mistake  of  owning  slaves.  This, 
however,  came  about  in  a  comparatively  innocent 
way,  and  not  without  a  touch  of  pathos.  The 
earliest  instance  occurred  at  St.  Thomas  (about 
1740),  where  one  of  the  Brethren,  stationed  apart 
from  others,  was  attacked  by  fever,  and  had 
nobody  to  attend  him.  Free  servants  were  not 
to  be  had  ;  so  the  congregation,  slaves  themselves, 
collected  money,  bought  a  servant,  and  gave  him 
to  their  minister  to  wait  upon  him  in  his  forlorn 
condition.  With  the  ideas  of  that  age  in  regard  to 
the  system,  and  owning  as  they  now  did  a  Jamaica 
estate  which  had  to  be  cultivated  for  their  sup- 
port, it  was  less  strange  that  they  thus  became 
masters.  Nor  is  it  strange  that  their  negroes 
were  indisposed  to  attend  upon  their  ministra- 

7 


98  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  CLECT.III. 

tions,  and  that  it  was  found  necessary  to  require 
them  to  do  this  as  to  perform  servile  labor.  The 
station  founded  on  this  estate  was  named  Carmel, 
and  it  was  held  by  the  mission  for  seventy  years, 
but  never  prospered.  "  O  Jamaica,  Jamaica ! " 
exclaims  Missionary  Lang;  "dead  as  flint,  yea, 
hard  as  an  adamant,  unfeeling  to  all  that  comes 
of  God  and  from  God!  Dost  thou  think  the 
Omnipresent  will  change  his  laws  for  thy  corrupt 
customs'  sake?" 

Improvement  might,  however,  be  seen,  even  in 
the  comparatively  lean  and  dreary  period  of  the 
last  century.  Only  the  next  year  after  (1755) 
the  opening  of  the  mission,  a  Brother  wrote  :  "  I 
heard  that  somebody  had  offered  a  horse  to  my 
servant  Lewis,  on  the  condition  of  his  doing 
something  which  neither  the  black  nor  white 
people  here  think  to  be  wrong,  but  which  was 
against  his  conscience.  He  refused  it,  and  an- 
swered :  '  I  will  not  lose  my  soul  to  gain  a  horse  ! ' 
Another  man,  old  John,  would  walk  twenty  miles 
to  hear  Christ  preached,  though  scourged  for  the 
offense.  His  master,  overtaking  him  one  night, 
asks,  with  a  curse,  if  he  has  been  to  church.  *  I 
have,'  he  replies,  'and  Jesus  is  sweet  to  me;  I 
must  not  let  him  go,  massa  ;  I  must  go  to  church.' 
With  another  oath,  and  with  further  blows  of  the 
whip,  the  master  rides  on."  Among  the  interest- 
ing converts  of  the  present  century  was  Archi- 
bald Monteith,  brought  from  Africa  as  a  slave, 


utcT.iiio  SPIBITTJAL  FEUITS.  99 

who,  without  instruction,  learned  to  read,  and,  as 
a  helper,  labored  with  ability,  zeal  and  faithful- 
ness for  many  years,  and  whose  last  words  (1863) 
were:  "My  looks  are  fastened  on  the  cross.  I 
am  ready  to  depart,  for  I  know  whom  I  have 
believed."  An  aged  woman,  who  walked  eleven 
miles  to  attend  meetings,  when  asked  how  she 
could  do  it,  answered :  "  Love  makes  the  way 
short."  In  the  early  days  of  the  work,  Caries, 
the  first  missionary,  sometimes  had  hearers  who 
would  walk  fifteen  or  more  miles  to  hear  him 
preach.  More  recently  (1821),  at  the  chapels  of 
Carmel  and  New  Eden,  might  be  seen  negroes 
who  did  not  hesitate  to  travel  twenty  miles  after 
their  week's  labor,  in  order  to  reach  the  mission 
stations  seasonably  on  Sunday  morning. 

Prior  to  emancipation,  the  negro  was  so  crushed 
as  to  be  the  veriest  coward  ;  the  whip  and  the 
gallows  were  constantly  in  his  eye ;  still  there 
would  be  an  occasional  outbreak.  In  1760  a 
rebellion  occurred ;  and  in  1831  was  an  extensive 
insurrection,  when,  though  few  white  men  were 
killed,  many  buildings  were  burned.  Almost 
none  of  the  converts,  however,  shared  in  the 
uprising,  while  many  instances  came  to  light  in 
which  life  and  property  were  preserved  by  them. 
One  proprietor,  when  obliged  to  leave  home  to 
join  the  militia,  felt  no  hesitation  in  trusting  his 
wife  and  children  to  the  negroes;  nor  did  they 
prove  unworthy  of  such  confidence.  Through 


100  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.III. 

the  hostility  of  persons  whose  evil  deeds  he  had 
exposed,  one  of  the  missionaries,  Pfeiffer,  was 
arrested  at  that  time  and  tried  by  a  court-martial, 
but  was  unanimously  acquitted ;  whereas  one  of 
the  chief  witnesses  against  him  was  condemned 
and  executed  for  the  part  he  had  taken  in  the 
insurrection. 

It  was  a  great  step  when,  in  1807,  the  slave- 
trade  between  Africa  and  the  West  Indies  re- 
ceived its  death-blow,  but  a  much  greater  when 
the  Act  of  Emancipation  of  slaves  on  the  British 
West  India  Islands  was  passed,  the  Imperial  Par- 
liament voting  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars 
by  way  of  compensation  for  eight  hundred  thou- 
sand slaves  liberated.  It  must  be  accounted  a 
noteworthy  coincidence,  that  the  same  night  — 
July  29,  1833  —  in  which  the  House  of  Commons 
passed  the  most  important  clause  of  that  Act,  and 
very  nearly  at  the  same  moment,  the  spirit  of 
Wilberforce,  whose  life-work  was  accomplished, 
should  be  released  from  earth.  On  the  eve  of 
the  memorable  1st  of  August,  1838,  when  eman- 
cipation went  fully  into  effect,  negroes  connected 
with  the  Moravian  Brethren  began  to  assemble 
at  Fairfield,  their  chief  station  in  Jamaica.  At 
four  o'clock,  the  chapel  bell  announced  the  day 
of  jubilee ;  and  no  sooner  did  day  dawn  than 
nearly  two  thousand  —  the  whole  number  on  the 
island  was  about  three  hundred  and  twelve  thou- 
sand —  who,  till  then,  had  been  slaves,  stood  in 


LECT.III.]  EMANCIPATION.  101 

orderly  ranks  on  a  terrace  behind  the  chapel, 
clothed  in  white,  prepared  to  give  thanks  to  Al- 
mighty God.  Religious  services  followed  at  dif- 
ferent hours ;  there  was  deep  feeling,  but  no 
jubilant  demonstration.  When  the  missionary, 
speaking  from  the  words,  "  If  the  Son  shall 
make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free  indeed,"  dwelt 
on  the  duty  of  gratitude  for  religious  advantages, 
the  whole  multitude,  with  one  consent,  burst  into 
a  response  :  "  Yes,  massa ;  thank  God.  We  do 
thank  the  Lord  for  it.  Bless  the  Lord ! "  The 
emancipated  slaves  were  by  no  means  unforgiving. 
A  gentleman,  on  making  his  first  appearance  at 
the  house  of  God,  was  treated  with  marked  civil- 
ity by  a  negro  member  of  the  church.  "What 
makes  you  so  happy  in  your  attentions  ? "  asked 
the  missionary,  "  Have  I  not  been  the  slave  of 
this  man  ?  "  said  he ;  "  has  he  not  punished  me 
many  times  for  going  to  church  ?  And  now  to  see 
him  come  himself,  and  sit  down  under  the  same 
roof!" 

As  time  advances,  spiritual  Christianity  takes 
a  deeper  hold  on  the  general  heart  —  a  feature 
which  may  be  looked  for  in  the  progress  of  all 
missionary  work.  That  became  especially  evi- 
dent during  a  religious  movement  in  the  year 
1860,  when  a  spirit  of  prayer  and  Christian  ear- 
nestness, beginning  at  the  station  of  New  Carmel, 
spread  to  the  other  twelve  stations,  and  was 
characterized  by  deep  conviction  of  sin,  and  the 


102  MOKAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.III. 

absence  of  all  peace  till  found  in  the  pardoning 
grace  of  Jesus  Christ.  "  Oh,  I  never  thought," 
exclaimed  a  girl  twelve  years  of  age,  "that  my 
sins  placed  the  thorns  on  our  Saviour's  head,  and 
drove  the  nails  into  his  hands,  and  fastened  him  to 
the  cross !  I  know  it  now !  But  he  has  forgiven 
me."  "  O  Lord  Jesus,"  cries  a  lad,  "  come  to  me, 
a  poor  child !  Let  the  oil  of  thy  grace  overstream 
my  heart,  my  head,  my  hands,  my  feet,  for  there 
is  no  sound  spot  in  me ;  all  is  full  of  wounds  and 
putrefying  sores ! "  Bibles  were  bought  as  never 
before ;  tippling-shops  were  deserted ;  and  a  zeal 
for  good  works  in  general  resulted,  at  least  for  a 
time. 

Here,  as  in  other  West  India  stations,  there 
has  been  great  mortality  among  the  Brethren. 
While  it  is  seldom  that  a  negro  dies  of  yellow 
fever,  in  one  year  (1825)  four  missionaries  were 
removed  in  the  course  of  a  single  month ;  and  at 
another  time  (1843),  also  four  during  the  year. 
Out  of  sixty-four  who  died  before  the  first  cente- 
nary, twenty-three  served  only  two  years  or  less. 
But,  within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  the 
average  term  of  service  has  nearly  doubled,  and 
at  the  same  time  the  work  has  come  to  be  highly 
prosperous,  and  is  now  (1881)  larger  than  any 
other  in  the  wide  field  of  Moravian  labor;  having 
fourteen  stations,  twenty-seven  missionaries,  in- 
cluding several  blacks,  and  over  fifteen  thousand 
persons,  of  whom  about  five  thousand  are  commu- 


MOT.  in.]  ST.  CHRISTOPHER'S.  103 

nicants.  In  sixty-eight  schools,  there  are  more 
than  five  thousand  children  under  instruction 
(5,555).  In  one  year  recently  (1876),  they 
raised  for  mission  work,  among  themselves,  eleven 
thousand  and  five  hundred  dollars,  besides  what 
they  contributed  to  the  Bible  Society  and  other 
objects.  A  female  training-school  was  opened  in 
1861  at  Bethabara,  which  has  rendered  good  ser- 
vice. They  have  a  theological  seminary  at  Fair- 
field  (1876),  for  training  native  ministers.  As  a 
general  thing,  however,  the  students  have  feeble 
reasoning  powers,  are  superficial,  and  disposed  to 
be  content  if  only  "  dipped  in  a  weak  solution  of 
accomplishment."  Two  years  ago  (1879),  the 
death  of  the  Principal,  and  other  disappointing 
experiences,  occasioned  a  temporary  closing  of 
the  institution.  Men  dismissed  from  service  in 
schools  or  elsewhere,  for  immorality,  have,  on 
account  of  their  gifts,  not  unfrequently  been 
taken  up  at  once  by  other  missions,  and  at  a 
higher  salary  than  the  Moravians  could  afford  to 
pay.  Unhappily,  this  is  not  a  solitary  instance  of 
such  want  of  comity  in  the  missionary  world. 
Another  annoyance,  in  later  years  (1876),  is  the 
damaging  influence  of  Plymouth  Brethren. 

Leaving  Jamaica,  we  will  now  retrace  our 
course  through  the  Caribbean  Sea  to  the  east- 
ward, and  beyond  the  Virgin  Islands.  Something 
over  one  hundred  miles  from  St.  Croix,  we  touch 
at  St.  Christopher's,  familiarly  known  among  the 


104  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LBCT.IH. 

English  as  St.  Kitt's.  From  the  shore  the  land 
sweeps  upward,  slowly  at  first,  then  rapidly,  to- 
ward the  central  mass,  a  rugged  peak  nearly  four 
thousand  feet  high,  of  black  lava,  called  Mount 
Misery,  that  overhangs  an  extinct  volcano,  from 
which  at  times  clouds  of  smoke  still  issue.  The 
island  has  less  than  seventy  square  miles,  and  a 
population  of  twenty-three  thousand,  two  thirds 
of  whom  are  negroes.  St.  Kitt's  is  picturesque 
and  peculiarly  fertile,  the  soil  being  in  some 
places  seventy  feet  deep. 

News  of  the  great  success  of  the  gospel  among 
slaves  in  Antigua,  where  a  work  had  been  begun 
by  Moravians,  reaching  the  island,  Mr.  Gardner, 
a  Christian  planter  and  an  officer  of  the  govern- 
ment, communicated  a  desire  to  the  Directing 
Board  at  Herrnhut  that  a  mission  might  be 
established.  Two  of  the  Brethren  were  accord- 
ingly sent  out  (1777).  The  venerable  Bishop 
Spangenberg,  in  his  instructions  to  them,  made 
some  excellent  suggestions :  "  Be  cautious  and 
prudent  in  availing  yourselves  of  the  favor  of 
men.  When  the  late  Count  Zinzendorf  was  on 
a  visit  to  St.  Thomas,  he  found  only  one  gentle- 
man kindly  disposed  toward  our  mission  there, 
a  Mr.  Carstens.  This  gentleman  ordered  his 
slaves,  of  whom  he  possessed  a  great  number,  to 
attend  the  meetings  of  our  Brethren.  They  did 
so,  but  still  remained  unconverted.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  negroes,  both  men  and  women,  who 


LKOT.ni.]  ST.  CHKISTOPHER'S.  105 

were  beaten  by  their  masters  and  mistresses  for 
attendance  at  meetings,  were  converted  and  be- 
came the  first-fruits  of  the  negro  congregation  in 
St.  Thomas." 

The  Anglican  clergyman  formerly  at  St.  Kitt's 
had  not  reflected  much  honor  upon  his  calling. 
He  boasted  to  the  Moravians  that,  by  request  of 
a  landed  proprietor  in  England,  he  had  baptized 
negroes,  and  in  this  way  had  earned  not  a  little 
money.  All  these  poor  slaves  continued  un- 
taught pagans  till  the  passing  of  the  Curates' 
Bill,  which  entitled  clergymen  to  a  fee  of  2s.  Qd. 
for  each  baptism ;  and  then  twenty-four  thousand 
in  one  parish  of  a  certain  island  were  made  Chris- 
tians at  once,  without  instruction,  examination,  or 
subsequent  discipline,  or  any  change  in  their  habits, 
to  live  and  die  almost  like  those  animals  upon  whom 
the  holy  water  is  sprinkled  by  the  priests  at  Rome 
on  the  feast  of  St.  Antonio ! 1  But  the  Moravian 
Brethren,  by  their  deportment  and  disinterested 
labors,  soon  secured  confidence  and  erelong  suc- 
cess. Toward  the  close  of  the  year,  some  of  the 
negroes  could  be  formed  into  a  candidates'  class. 
One  old  woman,  to  whom  the  missionaries  were  try- 
ing to  make  it  clear  that  the  Saviour  of  sinners  had 
become  man  and  died  for  her  sake,  and  wished 
that  she  should  be  saved,  fell  upon  her  knees, 
lifted  up  her  hands,  and  exclaimed :  "  O  massa ! 

1  Baptist  Noel's  Christian  Missions  to  Heathen  Nations,  124. 


106  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.IH. 

that  is  so  sweet !  Such  good  news  I  never  heard 
in  all  my  life."  Many  of  the  negroes  showed  an 
eager  desire  to  hear  the  Word  of  Life,  which  they 
might  not  learn  to  read.  When,  after  a  dozen 
years,  a  chapel  was  put  up,  the  attendance  be- 
came large,  even  on  week-days. 

Seventeen  years  from  the  commencement 
(1794)  there  were  two  thousand  members;  and 
the  good  work  continued  to  go  on  prosperously 
in  the  main.  Less  opposition  was  met  with  than 
at  most  of  the  islands;  but  it  has  been  in  the 
midst  of  fearful  and  destructive  earthquakes,  hur- 
ricanes, and  floods,  as  well  as  alarms  and  occu- 
pation by  the  French  during  times  of  war,  that 
the  Moravians  have  toiled  on.1  Among  the  many 
rich  natural  productions  of  this  island  are  several 
kinds  of  citron,  which  perfume  the  air,  from  one 
of  which  is  obtained  the  delicious  bergamot ;  but 
no  rich  odor,  no  "  spicy  breezes,"  so  refresh  us  as 
the  breath  of  devout  joy  from  converts,  some 
of  them  on  sick  beds.  "  Praise  the  Lord ! "  ex- 
claimed an  elderly  woman,  as  she  fell  under  an 
apoplectic  seizure.  "  Praise  the  Lord  ! "  were  the 
last  words  of  a  youthful  colored  sister,  whose 
sickness  had  been  a  prolonged  one,  and  who  had 
endured  buffetings  of  Satan,  whom  she  resisted, 

1  Pestilence  has  also  done  its  fearful  work.  In  the  course 
of  a  little  over  one  month  in  1854,  fourteen  hundred  and  five, 
out  of  the  eight  thousand  inhabitants  of  Basseterre,  were  swept 
away  by  cholera. 


IJWT.  in.]  ANTIGUA.  107 

saying :  "  You  did  not  die  for  me  I "  Their  cen- 
tenary celebration  occurred  in  1877 ;  and  there 
are  now  (1881)  on  the  island  four  stations,  ten 
missionaries,  and  four  thousand  persons  iri  charge 
(4,106),  of  whom  fifteen  hundred  and  eighty-four 
are  communicants.  The  schools  are  flourishing. 

A  trip  of  sixty  miles  still  farther  eastward 
brings  us  to  Antigua,  an  island  discovered  by 
Columbus  (1493),  nearly  the  first  of  those  settled 
by  England,  and  which  is  one  of  the  most  produc- 
tive in  the  British  West-Indian  group.  It  con- 
tains one  hundred  and  eight  square  miles,  and 
a  population  of  perhaps  thirty  thousand.  Anti- 
gua stands  in  extreme  contrast  with  Jamaica, 
in  that  it  has  no  running  water,  the  people  de- 
pending wholly  upon  cisterns,  tanks  and  ponds. 
Hence,  in  the  failure  of  rain,  there  is  sometimes 
a  distressing  drought,  and  crops  are  uncertain. 
The  condition  of  slaves  in  this  island,  previous  to 
Moravian  labors  among  them,  did  not  differ  much 
from  what  it  was  on  other  islands.  The  inherent 
vices  of  the  system  were  here,  as  elsewhere,  aggra- 
vated by  certain  accessories;  Christian  instruction, 
baptism  and  marriage  had  never  been  conceded  to 
the  negroes,  and  the  only  way  in  which  they  had 
learned  the  name  of  God  was  by  hearing  white 
men  swear. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  after  the  establishment 
of  the  mission  on  St.  Thomas,  Samuel  Isles,  after 
laboring  on  the  Danish  Islands  for  some  time, 


108  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.  in. 

went  to  Antigua  (1756).  He  had  received  no 
instructions,  and  had  no  friends  there  ;  but,  going 
directly  to  the  Governor,  he  showed  the  Act  of 
Parliament  (1749)  which  recognized  the  Mora- 
vian Church,  and  encouraged  Christian  efforts 
in  British  colonies.  Permission  to  remain  was 
granted.  At  night  he  found  shelter  in  a  negro 
cottage.  He  and  his  immediate  successors  suffered 
from  extreme  poverty,  and  were  obliged  to  work 
for  their  own  support.  Peter  Braun,  who  arrived 
from  Pennsylvania  (1769),  and  toiled  assiduously 
for  twenty-two  years,  was  particularly  blessed. 
His  ardent  love  to  the  Saviour,  and  to  the  souls 
of  these  slaves,  made  him  cheerfully  condescend 
to  men  of  low  estate.  He  was  with  them  in  their 
hours  of  rest,  ate  out  of  their  calabash,  and 
thus  finally  conquered  a  place  in  their  affection.1 
"  The  poor  negroes,"  he  wrote,  "  have  something 
very  attractive  to  me.  I  love  them  clearly ;  and 
they  become  dearer  to  me  every  day,  especially 

1  To  the  Rev.  Rowland  Hill  he  wrote,  in  his  imperfect 
English:  "Certainly,  dear  sir  and  brother,  when  the  grace  of 
our  dear  Lord  changed  their  heart,  then  they  became  comeliness 
unto  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  you  write ;  and  when  we  see 
them,  and  feel  how  the  grace  of  our  Lord  works  in  their  heart, 
and  in  the  meeting,  we,  faithfully  speaking,  see  the  tear  trick- 
ling down  their  cheeks  for  longing  to  love  our  dear  Saviour, 
who  suffered  and  died  for  us ;  when  we  see  this  and  feel  this 
from  them,  then  we  cannot  do  otherwise  than  love  them,  and 
spend  these  lives  with  them."  Rowland  Hill's  efforts  in  behalf 
of  foreign  missions  may  be  traced  to  his  special  interest  in  the 
work  of  this  humble  Moravian. 


utcT.in.]  THE  GOSPEL   EFFICIENT.  109 

when  I  observe  their  childlike  simplicity  and  love 
to  the  Saviour." 

Was  the  new  life  among  these  debased  crea- 
tures only  apparent,  or  was  it  an  abiding  reality  ? 
There  have  been  seasons  of  remarkable  religious 
interest,  as  in  1 774,  when  the  slaves,  after  work- 
ing hard  all  day,  and  often  without  a  single  meal, 
would,  in  spite  of  cruel  beating,  go  eight  and  ten 
miles  to  hear  the  word  of  God ;  and  again,  in 
1782,  when  missionaries  could  often  find  no  time 
to  eat  a  bit  of  bread,  there  were  so  many  hungry 
souls  to  be  fed.  Wayside  and  stony  ground 
hearers  there  were,  of  course ;  but  let  specimens 
from  the  good  ground  speak  for  themselves.  For 
instance,  one  Joseph,  who  joined  the  Moravians, 
having  obtained  his  freedom,  was  engaged  as 
valet  to  a  gentleman.  His  master  often  entered 
into  familiar  conversation  with  him,  and  once 
said  to  him  :  "  Joseph,  you  are  a  fool  to  be  always 
going  to  Gracehill ;  for  you  were  baptized  in  the 
English  Church."  The  negro  replied :  "  I  was 
a  fool  when  I  gave  the  clergyman  money  to  bap- 
tize me,  though  he  never  instructed  me  in  the 
doctrine  of  salvation.  This  I  have  been  taught 
in  Gracehill,  a  Moravian  station.  You,  sir,  are 
a  great  gentleman  and  a  Christian,  and  yet  you 
never  go  to  church  ;  but  I  will  tell  you,  I  would 
not  change  with  you,  though  I  am  but  a  poor 
negro."  Jacob  Harvey,  a  helper,  was,  like  others, 
very  fond  of  hymns.  The  missionary,  finding  the 


110  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.IH. 

good  man's  book  crammed  with  slips  of  paper, 
blades  of  grass,  dried  leaves,  cane-tops,  and  bits 
of  rags,  as  book-marks,  remonstrated  with  him, 
saying  that  the  back  of  the  book  would  burst; 
but  Jacob  exclaimed :  "  O  massa !  dem  me  partik- 
ler  hymns."  The  converts  learned  to  take  joy- 
fully the  spoiling  of  their  goods,  such  as  they  had. 
The  house  of  one  of  them  being  broken  into  and  j 
robbed,  he  said,  with  placid  countenance  :  "  Well, 
they  have  not  been  able  to  rob  me  of  my  greatest 
treasure  —  the  grace  of  my  Saviour.  They  are 
more  to  be  pitied  than  I  am." 

When  Peter  Braun  arrived,  there  were  fourteen 
baptized  negroes  ;  when,  literally  worn  out  in  the 
Master's  service,  he  left  (1791),  there  were,  in 
charge  of  the  Brethren,  seven  thousand  and  four 
hundred  persons,  of  all  ages,  the  majority  of  whom 
had  received  baptism,1  and  a  great  number  were 
communicants.  In  the  course  of  the  last  year  of 
this  most  excellent  man's  labor  there,  no  fewer  than 
six  hundred  and  forty  baptisms  took  place.  Even 
sixty  years  ago  (1823)  it  was  found  that,  in  the 
town  of  St.  John's  alone,  more  than  sixteen  thou- 
sand (16,099)  negroes  had  received  that  ordi- 
nance ;  and  the  church  there  attained  such  size 
—  about  seven  thousand  members  —  that,  in  the 

1  In  these  missions,  children  are  not  baptized  as  such  after 
they  have  completed  their  fourth  year,  nor  in  general  as  adults 
before  they  are  twelve  years  old.  Missionary  Conference,  St. 
Thomas,  1869,  p.  9. 


LEOT.III.]  THE  GOSPEL  EFFICIENT.  Ill 

course  of  less  than  ten  years  (1837-1845),  it 
could  furnish  four  branch  congregations.  In  St. 
John's  is  a  training  institution  for  females,  which 
supplies  useful  school-mistresses. 

The  memorable  year  of  1834  arriving,  the'  Leg- 
islature of  the  Colony  of  Antigua  took  a  bold 
step  in  granting  unrestricted  freedom  to  the 
slaves,  instead  of  waiting  till  after  the  four  years 
of  apprenticeship  allowed  by  Parliament.  The 
result  showed  that  the  proceeding  was  no  less 
judicious  than  humane.  In  the  preamble  to  that 
Act,  the  fitness  of  Antigua  bondsmen  for  this 
immediate  boon  was  ascribed  to  the  religious 
instruction  which  for  a  long  time  had  been  im- 
parted by  Moravians  and  others.  On  the  evening 
of  July  31,  one  of  the  Brethren  held  a  meeting, 
which  was  thronged,  the  text  of  his  discourse 
being,  "Sanctify  yourselves,  for  tomorrow  the 
Lord  will  do  wonders  for  you."  About  eleven 
o'clock  it  began  to  thunder,  which  continued 
with  increasing  violence  till  midnight,  and  then 
ceased.  It  seemed  as  if  God  from  heaven  sum- 
moned all  to  attend  while  liberty  to  the  captive 
was  proclaimed.  The  clock  struck  twelve,  and 
thirty  thousand  souls  on  that  island  passed  in  an 
instant  from  slavery  to  freedom.  The  sun  of 
August  1st  rose  upon  them  an  orderly  commu- 
nity, subdued  in  temper,  and  hastening  quietly 
"  to  enter  the  gates  of  the  Lord  with  thanksgiving 
and  his  courts  with  praise." 


112  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.  m. 

At  the  present  hour  (1881)  there  are  eight 
stations,  seventeen  missionaries,  and  seven  thou- 
sand members  (7,106).  It  was  peculiarly  grati- 
fying to  me  to  hear  Bishop  Jackson,  of  the 
English  Church,  after  forty  years  of  missionary 
service  in  the  West  Indies,  make  a  public  state- 
ment in  Exeter  Hall,  five  years  ago,  to  this  effect 
—  that  he  remembered  when  the  census  of  An- 
tigua made  no  mention  of  the  thousands  of 
blacks;  when  scarcely  one  of  them  was  seen  in 
the  English  churches,  or  at  the  communion 
table;  when  very  few  of  them  could  read;  and 
when  there  was  no  marriage,  for  that  would 
interfere  with  the  planters'  way  of  doing  busi- 
ness. Now,  more  than  half  can  read,  and  a 
majority  are  in  the  congregations ;  and,  in  achiev- 
ing that  result,  Moravians  nobly  took  the  lead. 
He  stated  also  that  the  first  English  clergyman 
who  instructed  blacks  in  Barbados  was  indicted 
for  the  offence,  and  that  the  prosecuting  attorney 
is  still  living. 

We  now  change  our  course,  and  proceed  south- 
ward toward  the  equator.  Three  hundred  miles 
will  bring  us  to  the  island  just  named,  Barba- 
dos,1 the  most  eastern  or  windward  island  in  the 


1  Barbados,  t.e.,  barbatus,  bearded.  It  was  named  thus  by  its 
Portuguese  discoverers,  from  the  appearance  of  a  tree,  a  species 
of  the  ficus,  which  throws  out  long  pendant  tufts  from  its 
branches. 


LECT.IJI.]  BAEBADOS.  113 

archipelago ;  encircled  with  coral  reefs ;  not  ele- 
vated itself ;  less  unhealthy  than  other  islands ; 
a  larger  share  of  its  one  hundred  and  sixty-six 
square  miles  under  cultivation  than  is  to  be  found 
elsewhere;  more  densely  populated  than  China, 
indeed,  than  any  other  spot  in  the  world,  except 
Malta  —  nine  hundred  and  sixty-six  to  the  square 
mile  —  notwithstanding  the  Asiatic  cholera,  in 
1854,  carried  off  over  one  seventh  of  the  people. 
A  larger  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  (160,000) 
are  white  than  anywhere  else  in  the  West  Indies. 
Small  as  is  the  area  —  about  the  same  as  the  Isle 
of  Wight  —  its  annual  trade  amounts  to  more 
than  five  millions  of  dollars  each  of  exports  and 
imports. 

The  earlier  missionary  endeavors  of  Moravians 
on  Barbados  were  attended  with  special  discour- 
agements. Planters  blamed  the  captain  who  had 
brought  a  Moravian  preacher ;  and  one,  who  was 
a  Roman  Catholic,  declared  he  would  throw  him 
into  the  water  if  he  came  near  his  estate.  Of  the 
two  Brethren  sent  out  in  1765,  one  died  within 
three  weeks  after  landing;  and  death  continued 
to  keep  the  ranks  of  these  Christian  laborers  thin, 
so  that,  after  six  years,  there  remained  only  two 
widows  and  one  unmarried  man.  But  the  living 
did  not  lose  heart,  nor  did  the  dying  leave  regret- 
fully. Missionary  Herr,  for  example,  on  the  even- 
ing of  his  decease  (February  24,  1773),  said : 
"  Yes,  dear  Saviour,  come  soon  and  call  me,  and 

8 


114  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.  m. 

give  me  what  thou  hast  merited ;  more  I  desire 
not." 

Among  the  Moravians  who  labored  for  a 
time  on  this  island,  was  the  father  of  James 
Montgomery  the  poet,  the  Rev.  John  Mont- 
gomery, who  died  here  in  1791.  Here  too,  as 
elsewhere,  it  appeared  that,  in  the  servile  in- 
surrection of  1816,  not  one  connected  with 
the  mission  congregation  was  implicated  in.  an 
outbreak  which  cost  the  lives  of  a  thousand  ne- 
groes. By  the  terrible  hurricanes  of  1780  and 
1831,  which  for  a  time  made  a  desert  of  Bar- 
bados, the  mission  suffered  heavily.  The  de- 
struction of  property  throughout  the  island,  in 
those  two  visitations,  amounted  to  fifteen  mill- 
ions of  dollars ;  and  of  life,  to  about  six  thousand 
persons. 

This  mission  has  not  been  characterized  by 
eminent  success,  either  in  numerical  results,  or 
influence  on  the  dense  population  ;  yet  a  goodly 
number  of  negroes  have  given  evidence,  in  life  and 
in  death,  that  they  were  subjects  of  special  divine 
grace.  A  representative  of  such  was  Dinah,  one 
of  the  first  to  receive  baptism,  who  showed  by  her 
whole  deportment  that  she  was  a  child  of  God ; 
and  who,  more  than  a  hundred  years  of  age,  was 
found  dead  one  morning,  kneeling  by  her  bedside 
in  the  attitude  of  prayer.  At  the  present  time 
(1881),  there  are  on  the  island  four  stations, 
six  missionaries,  and  three  thousand  adherents 


LKCT.  ni.]  TOBAGO.  115 

(3,167),  the  fourteen  hundred  (1,406)  commtfni- 
cants  included. 

It  was  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  fiction  and 
the  plain  prose  of  our  present  subject  would  meet 
on  the  confines  of  the  Caribbean  Sea  ;  yet  Tobago 
is  entitled  to  be  regarded  as  "  Robinson  Crusoe's 
Island,"  Charles  Kingsley,  whose  authority  in  a 
matter  of  romance  will  not  be  questioned,  pro- 
nouncing in  its  favor.  It  certainly  is  so  situated 
as  not  improbably  to  be  the  place  of  wreck  for 
one  off  "the  river  Oroonoque,"  who  should,  as 
Crusoe  did,  "stand  away  for  Barbados."  From, 
the  latter  it  is  distant  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
to  the  south. 

Here  we  begin  to  find  ourselves  outside  the 
range  of  hurricanes,  and  among  the  spices  —  cin- 
namon and  nutmegs.  Figs  and  guavas  are  the  best 
in  the  West  Indies.  Unlike  the  islands  hitherto 
visited,  this  has  singing-birds.  Of  humming-birds 
there  are  several  species ;  and  here  we  set  eyes 
upon  the  beautiful  flamingo.  The  island  has  an. 
area  of  about  one  hundred  square  miles,  and  a 
population  of  seventeen  thousand  souls.  Here, 
as  well  as  in  Barbados,  an  incurable  form  of  lep- 
rosy is  known ;  the  lower  limbs  being  not  unfre- 
quently  attacked,  and  becoming  so  swollen  and 
rough  as  to  resemble  the  limbs  of  an  elephant; 
hence  the  name,  Elephantiasis.* 

1  Elephantiasis  Arabum  —  Bucnomia  tropica,  or  "  Barbados  leg." 


116  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.III. 

•In  bringing  the  gospel  hither,  as  so  often  else- 
where, Moravian  missionaries  were  pioneers.  At 
the  request  of  a  Mr.  Hamilton,  one  of  the  wealthy 
proprietors,  a  beginning  was  made  by  the  Rev. 
John  Montgomery  (1787),  who,  in  feeble  health, 
paid  a  visit  from  Barbados.  Three  years  later 
he  moved  to  the  island ;  but  his  wife  died  after 
a  few  months,  and,  within  less  than  a  year,  he 
was  obliged  to  leave,  when  there  occurred  a 
missionary  interregnum  of  eight  years.  Mr.  Ham- 
ilton, however,  was  still  desirous  to  have  the 
slaves  taught  religiously,  though  most  of  the 
planters  spent  their  unrighteous  gains  in  profli- 
gacy, and  were  not  in  favor  of  having  the  Word 
of  God,  which  condemned  their  sinful  practices, 
introduced  among  the  slaves.  A  prosperous  work 
began ;  then  failure  of  health  again  on  the  part 
of  new  laborers,1  and  the  reoccupation  of  the 
island  by  the  French,  compelled  another  suspen- 
sion of  the  work  (1802).  A  quarter  of  a  cent- 
ury more  elapsed  before  permanent  resumption 
took  place  (1827),  when  the  chief  missionary  sta- 
tion received  the  appropriate  name  of  Montgom- 
ery, which  it  still  bears. 

Unquestionable  improvement,  in  nearly  all  re- 
spects, has  taken  place  among  the  negroes.  The 


1  The  average  term  of  service  on  the  part  of  the  sixty-four 
brethren  and  sisters  who  have  labored  here  is  only  four 
years. 


LECT.  in.]  CONVERTS.  117 

uncouth  patois  which  formerly  prevailed  has  given 
place  somewhat  generally  to  respectable  English ; 
and  Tobago  enjoys  the  enviable  reputation  of 
having  a  larger  proportion  of  her  inhabitants  in 
the  enjoyment  of  educational  advantages  than 
any  other  island  in  the  archipelago.  Some  of  the 
negroes  have  become  exemplary  Christians  and 
valuable  helpers,  by  witnessing  to  the  truth  ex- 
perimentally as  it  is  in  Jesus.  Such  an  one,  for 
instance,  was  old  Kate,  at  Montgomery;  and 
Belinda,  once  a  slave,  but  a  true  mother  in  Israel 
—  names  which  Paul  would  have  inserted  among 
the  Phebes  and  Priscillas  of  Romans  sixteenth. 
"When  I  am  going  up  hill  to  Montgomery," 
Belinda  used  to  say,  "  I  am  as  joyful  as  if  I  were 
going  to  heaven."  Instances  of  suggestive  liber- 
ality were  not  wanting.  When  the  foundation 
of  a  new  church  was  laid  (1840)  at  Montgomery, 
an  old  man  came  on  his  crutches  to  the  mission- 
ary, and  laid  down  a  dollar,  saying :  "  Massa, 
here  is  something  for  the  new  church."  "  Where 
did  you  get  the  money  ?  "  asked  the  missionary. 
"  I  take  care  of  little  children,"  said  he,  "  while 
their  mothers  are  at  work  in  the  fields  ;  and  some- 
times they  give  me  a  half-penny  or  two  for  my 
trouble ;  so,  by  degrees,  I  have  collected  this 
dollar,  and  now  I  give  it  to  the  church  with  all 
my  heart."  It  was  all  he  had.  The  statistics 
for  1881  report  three  stations,  six  missionaries, 
over  a  thousand  church-members  (1,106),  arid 


118  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.III. 

two  thousand  six  hundred  and  seventeen  persons 
in  charge. 

This  West  India  mission,  in  its  two  divisions, 
Eastern  and  Western  —  an  arrangement  which  was 
made  in  1879 — reckons  forty-one  stations,  seventy- 
eight  missionaries,  and  over  thirty-six  thousand 
members  (36,698).  By  an  enactment  of  the  last 
General  Synod  of  the  Unitas  (1879),  the  appro- 
priations are  to  be  reduced  one  tenth  annually; 
and  this  field  is  to  become  self-supporting  in  the 
year  1889,  after  which  it  will  receive  no  more  aid 
from  the  home  churches,  and  will  then  constitute 
an  independent  Province,  though,  like  each  of  the 
existing  Provinces,  an  integral  part  of  the  Unitas 
Fratrum.  It  should  be  added  that,  from  the  first, 
it  has  been  found  necessary  to  exclude  many 
from  the  churahes  on  account  of  immorality. 
Outside  of  Christian  churches,  the  majority  of 
children  born  are  illegitimate.  The  moral  atmos- 
phere is  a  tainted  one.  Relics  of  African  super- 
stition are  to  be  met  with.  One,  among  the  many 
notions  which  the  black  sorcerers  encourage,  is 
this  —  that  they  can  furnish  something  where- 
with to  catch  the  shadow  of  a  man,  who  can  then, 
they  pretend,  be  burned  or  drowned.  The  former 
curse  of  slavery  is  still  felt  in  its  degrading  influ- 
ence on  the  negro ;  manly  independence,  and  sta- 
bility of  Christian  character,  such  as  may  be  met 
with  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  are  seldom  found 
here. 


LKCT.  III.] 


SLAVERY.  119 


In  the  flow  of  human  affairs  under  Divine  provi- 
dence, what  a  singular  conjunction  do  we  witness 
on  these  West  India  Islands !  Savage  men,  torn 
from  the  western  coast  of  the  old  Dark  Continent, 
are  forced  into  cruel  bondage,  thousands  of  miles 
away,  on  the  confines  of  this  new  world.  Moved 
by  the  Spirit,  and  guided  by  the  God  of  missions, 
men  from  the  interior  of  another  continent  find 
their  way  thousands  of  miles  to  the  same  region, 
that  they  may  sit  down  by  these  expatriated 
Africans,  and  tell  them  of  salvation  through  Jesus 
Christ.  Be  it  remembered,  Catholic  Spain  was 
not  the  only  country  which  had  been,  and  was 
still,  engaged  in  the  slave  trade,  and  in  the  em- 
ployment of  slave  labor  on  West  India  Islands. 
Protestant  England  legalized  and  encouraged  the 
abomination.  Only  twenty  years  before  Dober 
and  Nitschmann  sailed  for  St.  Thomas,  Queen 
Anne  boasted,  in  her  speech  to  Parliament  (1712), 
of  her  success  in  securing  to  Englishmen  a  new 
market  for  slaves  in  Spanish  America.  One  hun- 
dred thousand  negroes  were  annually  imported 
to  supply  West  India  plantations  alone ;  and,  on 
passing  into  the  planters'  hands,  each  of  them  had 
the  initial  of  his  owner's  name  stamped  upon  his 
shoulder  with  a  heated  brand.  And  what  kind  of 
treatment  did  they  experience  ?  On  the  estates 
generally,  at  dawn  of  day  the  shell  was  blown 
to  call  slaves  to  their  work;  and  each  gang  —  one 
of  them  made  up  of  children  from  six  to  twelve 


120  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLECTHI. 

years  of  age  —  was  marched  to  the  field  under 
a  driver  with  a  long  whip.  Returning  exhausted 
after  sunset,  they  were  sometimes  compelled  to 
toil  for  hours  by  moonlight.  If  the  overseer, 
upon  examination,  was  not  satisfied  with  their 
work,  they  were  flogged,  men  and  women  alike. 
Yes,  women  might  be  whipped  at  the  mercy  of 
any  ruffian  slave-driver ;  and  by  at  least  the 
third  blow  the  body  would  be  covered  with  blood. 
Mr.  Henry  Whitley  z  gives  a  simple  and  truthful 
narrative  of  the  common  incidents  of  a  sugar  plan- 
tation, and  brings  before  us  the  driver,  looking  on 
with  lazy  indifference ;  the  piercing  cries  of  the 
negro  woman  tied  upon  the  ground  to  receive  her 
punishment;  the  crack  of  the  fearful  cart-whip, 
the  shriek  of  agony  as  it  cuts  deep  into  the  flesh. 
In  four  colonies,  and  those  the  best  ordered, 
planters  themselves  swore  to  the  infliction  of 
sixty  thousand  punishments  in  one  year.  A  sin- 
gle individual,  Mr.  Arthur  Hodge,  caused  the 
death  of  about  threescore  slaves ;  and  his  counsel 
asserted  boldly  that,  "  a  slave  being  property,  it 
was  no  greater  offence  in  law  for  a  master  to  kill 
him  than  it  would  be  to  kill  a  dog."  2  To  have 
a  conscience  or  aspiration  or  human  affection,  to 
think  or  hope,  was  no  prerogative  of  the  negro, 
but  only  to  dig  and  to  tremble.  What  must  be 

1  Three  Months  in  Jamaica.     1832. 

2  Edwards's  History  of  the  British  West  Indies,  IV,  460. 


LKCT.mo  MORAVIAN   PHILANTHROPY.  121 

the  moral  condition  of  savages  kidnapped  and 
subjected  to  such  a  system  —  a  system  under 
which  marriage  was  illegal,  under  which,  on  some 
estates,  they  were  rigidly  forbidden  to  attend 
upon  any  means  of  grace,  every  violation  being 
visited  with  the  lash  ?  The  plantation  staff  were 
sunk  in  profligacy;  the  negroes  were  like  beasts 
of  the  field.  "  Take  it  all  in  all,"  says  Captain 
Southey,  brother  of  Robert  Southey  the  poet, 
and  a  competent  witness,  "  it  is  perhaps  as  dis- 
graceful a  portion  of  history  as  the  whole  course 
of  time  can  afford  ;  for  I  know  not  that  there  is 
anything  generous,  anything  ennobling,  anything 
honorable  or  consolatory  to  human  nature,  to 
relieve  it,  except  what  may  relate  to  the  mission- 
aries." 

The  thought  of  giving  Christian  instruction 
to  slaves  seems  to  have  occurred  to  only  here  and 
there  a  planter.  With  whom  did  an  effort  in  that 
direction  originate  ?  With  George  II,  a  German 
prince,  then  upon  the  throne  of  England  ?  With 
the  Parliament  of  England,  or  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land? No,  but  among  obscure  Moravians  in  the 
heart  of  continental  Europe.  Before  Grenville 
Sharpe  was  born,  half  a  century  before  Thomas 
Clarkson  and  William  Wilberforce  began  to  in- 
terest themselves  about  the  slave  trade,  humble 
artisans  from  Herrnhut  were  illustrating  "  practi- 
cal Christianity"  among  despised  African  bond- 
servants of  English  proprietors  in  this  far-off 


122  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.IH. 

region.  They  led  the  van  in  breaking  up  the 
apathy  that  prevailed  concerning  the  spiritual 
condition  of  slaves,  and  in  breaking  through  the 
skepticism  which  prevailed  as  to  the  possibility 
of  their  being  converted.  Not  long  before  the 
mission  was  begun  on  St.  Christopher's,  an  Eng- 
lish clergyman  declared :  "  To  bring  them  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  Christian  religion  is  undoubt- 
edly a  great  and  good  design,  in  the  intention 
laudable,  and  in  speculation  easy ;  yet  I  believe, 
for  reasons  too  tedious  to  mention,  that  the  diffi- 
culties attending  it  are,  and  I  am  persuaded  ever 
will  be,  insurmountable."1  Moravian  mission- 
aries had  to  encounter  the  most  intensely  adverse 
agencies — drought,  famine,  pestilence  and  the 
hurricane,  which  at  times  demolished  dwellings 
and  churches,  and  carried  devastation  over  all 
the  fruits  of  industry.  Mortality  among  the 
missionaries  has  been  fearful.  Many  have  died 
when  just  entering  upon  the  work,  and  nearly  all 
have  suffered  from  severe  sickness.  At  the  close 
of  the  first  century  (1832),  out  of  three  hundred 
and  seven  laborers,  male  and  female,  who  had 
been  employed,  one  hundred  and  ninety  (an  aver- 
age of  about  two  annually)  had  been  removed  by 
death.  These  West  India  Islands  form  a  series 
of  Moravian  cemeteries.  The  Brethren  knew 

1  The  Rev.  Mr.  Hughes,  quoted  in  Jamaica  Enslaved  and 


LBCT.III.]  MORAVIAN  PHILANTHROPY.  123 

their  liabilities ;  they  met  them  calmly,  and  with 
quiet  assurance  fell  asleep  in  Jesus.  Other 
churches  have  since  sent  Christian  laborers  to 
the  same  fields ;  but  Moravians  were  the  first, 
by  their  toil  and  their  graves,  to  take  possession 
of  those  islands  for  "  Him  who  shall  have  domin- 
ion also  from  sea  to  sea." 


LECTURE  IV. 


MISSIONS    TO. SOUTH  AND   CENTRAL 
AMERICA. 


A  SCOTTISH  writer,1  speaking  of  the  savage, 
remarks  :  "  Europe,  especially  Britain,  would  fain 
save  him,  but  he  cannot  be  saved.  Born  a  sav- 
age, meant  for  savage  life,  it  would  seem  as  if  his 
Creator  had  decreed  that  his  continuance  should 
be  limited  to  this  state ;  and  that  the  approach  of 
civilization,  and  the  races  who  pertain  to  it,  speak 
the  doom  of  savagism  and  the  savage."  So  writes 
the  minister  of  St.  Stephen's  Presbyterian  Church, 
in  Bathurst,  New  South  Wales.  This  voice  from 
the  antipodes  does  not  sound  quite  Pauline  :  "  I 
am  debtor  both  to  the  Greeks  and  to  the  barba- 
rians." Might  not  a  remembrance  of  his  own 
ancestors,  who  at  a  remote  period  were  wild  sav- 
ages, have  corrected  the  reverend  gentleman's 
notion  regarding  divine  decrees?  Whatever  the 
residence,  the  experience,  or  the  profession,  is  it 
seemly  in  any  one  to  limit  our  Saviour's  last  com- 
mand, or  the  elevating  power  of  Christianity? 

1  Christian  Missions  to  Wrong  Places,  among  Wrong  Races, 
and  in  Wrong  Hands.  By  Rev.  A.  C.  Geekie,  D.D.  London, 
1871,  p.  101. 

(127) 


128  MOB  AVIAN   MISSIONS.  CLECT.IV. 

What  body  of  clergymen  now  living,  what  culti- 
vated religious  community  is  there,  but  may  trace 
their  pedigree  back  to  a  barbarian  period  ? 

In  the  last  lecture,  it  appeared  that  humble, 
earnest  men  proved  the  gospel  of  Christ  to  be 
"  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every " 
uncivilized  African  in  the  West  Indies  "that 
believeth."  Let  us  today  look  a  little  further 
among  savages  in  the  tropics.  Taking  our  de- 
parture from  the  island  of  Tobago,  we  sail  for 
South  America.  Two  hundred  miles  bring  us 
past  the  mouth  of  the  Orinoco  to  the  nearest  point 
of  Guiana  on  the  shoulder  of  the  continent.  The 
region  bearing  this  name,  Guiana,  extends  from 
the  Orinoco  to  the  Amazon ;  but,  in  the  more 
restricted  use,  it  has  a  northern  coast-line  of  six 
or  eight  hundred  miles,  divided  into  three  por- 
tions, English,  Dutch,  and  French  Guiana.  No 
mountain  range  or  headland  along  the  coast 
attracts  the  eye  of  the  mariner.  The  land  is  so 
low  as  to  be  hardly  visible  from  the  sea ;  indeed, 
trees  seem  to  rise  out  of  the  water.  Scarcely  a 
stone  can  be  found.  For  many  leagues  south- 
ward it  is  one  great  oozy,  alluvial  flat,  a  tropical 
Netherlands,  requiring  embankments  to  protect 
against  inundations  from  the  ocean  and  from 
rivers.  There  are  districts  where,  in  flood-time, 
fishes  feed  on  the  leaves  of  herbs,  crabs  are  found 
on  trees,  and  oysters  multiply  in  the  forests.  The 
sea  is  made  turbid  by  alluvial  matter  which  the 


LBCT.  ivo  GUIANA.  129 

streams  discharge ;  and  the  same  matter,  lodged 
on  land,  gives  rise,  under  tropical  heat,  to  malaria. 
The  enormous  amount  of  quinine  imported  sug- 
gests the  kinds  of  fevers  which  prevail.  Forests 
and  rivers  are  the  chief  features.  Here  is  found 
the  magnificent  Victoria  Regia,  discovered  by 
Shomburgk  in  1837,  the  most  beautiful  specimen 
in  the  vegetable  kingdom  of  this  western  hemi- 
sphere. Parasitical  plants  are  so  abundant  and 
rank  as  to  render  these  virgin  forests  nearly  im- 
passable by  man ;  but  they  are  alive  with  wild 
beasts,  and  with  a  variety  of  brilliant  birds.  Here 
is  the  favorite  home  of  the  boa,  the  vampire, 
frightful  swarms  of  insects  and  of  various  vermin. 
It  is  the  very  paradise  of  the  chigoe,  the  wood- 
tick,  and  the  bete-rouge.  It  may  be  noticed,  in 
passing,  that  in  all  the  larger  rivers  there  are 
cataracts  at  some  distance  from  the  sea;  one  of 
these  falls,  the  Kaieteur,  becoming  known  to  the 
civilized  world  only  a  dozen  years  since.1  The 
Potaro,  a  tributary  of  the  Essequibo,  at  a  width 
of  three  hundred  and  seventy  feet,  plunges  from 
a  height  of  eight  hundred  and  twenty-two  feet.2 
It  was  hither  that  gallant  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 


1  Discovered  by  C.  B.  Brown  in  1870. 

2  "  Many  years  since,"  says  Raleigh,  "  I  had  knowledge  by 
revelation  of  that  mighty,  rich,  and  beawtifull  empire,  Guiana, 
and  of   that   great  and   golden  citie  which  the  Spaniards  call 
El  Dorado,  and  the  naturals  Manoa."    Discoverie  of  the  Empire 
of  Guiana,  1695,  p.  v. 

9 


130  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.IV. 

came  in  pursuit  of  an  imaginary  "El  Dorado," 
glittering  pieces  of  mica  being  sufficient  to  induce 
the  dream  of  another  empire  like  that  of  the 
Incas.  Spanish,  Portuguese,  Dutch,  German  and 
English  adventurers  were  attracted  to  this  region, 
and  many  lives  sacrificed. 

The  eastern  section  of  Guiana  is  the  only  Brit- 
ish possession  on  the  continent  of  South  America ; 
but  the  population,  about  a  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand,  exclusive  of  aborigines,  is  most  miscel- 
laneous —  British,  Dutch,  French,  Portuguese, 
African,  besides  Chinese  and  Hindu  coolies.  In 
the  interior  are  Indian  tribes,  like  the  aborigines 
of  our  own  country — feeble  remnants,  scattered, 
diminishing  in  numbers,  and  politically  unimpor- 
tant. In  character  apathetic,  indolent,  sensuous, 
revengeful,  fond  of  an  independent  life,  they  have 
acute  senses,  and  maintain  a  keen  observation  of 
natural  objects.  Blood-revenge  is  not  uncommon. 
Slavery  existed  among  the  natives,  as  in  Africa, 
from  the  earliest  times.1  Among  these  tribes  are 
the  Accawois,  who  deal  in  poison  and  murder, 
hiring  themselves  to  others  for  the  purpose  of 
assassination ;  the  Warows,  marsh-loving,  filthy, 


1  Francis  Sparrow,  who  had  been  left  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 
to  explore  the  country,  bought,  to  the  southward  of  the  Ori- 
noco, eight  beautiful  young  women,  the  eldest  not  eighteen 
years  of  age,  for  a  red-handled  knife,  the  value  of  which  in 
England,  at  that  time,  was  but  one  half-penny.  Drake's  Voy- 
age, 295. 


IECT.  IT.]  INHABITANTS.  131 

and  most  degraded;  the  Arawaks,1  less  savage, 
more  accessible  and  more  numerous,  than  others, 
living  nearer  the  European  colonists,  and  having 
an  aptitude  for  civilization  greater  than  tribes 
farther  from  the  coast.  Then  there  are  the 
Caribs,  martial  plunderers,  if  not  as  in  former 
times  cannibals,  who  tyrannize  over  less  spirited 
natives,  and  in  their  general  habits  resembling 
the  Indians  of  North  America,  subsisting  chiefly 
by  the  chas,e  and  by  fishing.  They  are  found  on 
both  sides  of  the  Essequibo,  and  in  Upper  Deme- 
rara,  British  Guiana.  Their  religion  is  a  dark 
web  of  gross  superstition  and  incoherent  fetichism. 
They  believe  in  two  superior  beings ;  to  the  one 
who  is  beneficent  they  pay  no  acts  of  worship, 
but  endeavor  by  tricks  of  necromancy  to  neutral- 
ize the  influence  of  the  evil  spirit  or  spirits,  of 
whom  they  live  in  abject  fear.  "  They  seek  unto 
them  that  have  familiar  spirits,  and  wizards  that 
peep  and  mutter."  This,  however,  must  be  said 
to  the  credit  of  native  Indians,  that  swearing  is 
unknown  in  the  vernacular,  which  does  not  fur- 
nish requisite  terms,  though  drunken  Indians  will 
sometimes  practice  profaneness  at  a  fearful  rate, 
but  it  is  in  the  English  language. 

Sundry  good   things  have  come  from  the  Old 

1  Variously  given  :  Arowaks,  Arowacks,  Arrowacks,  Arro- 
waks,  Arowagrces,  etc.  —  "Flour-People,"  from  their  having 
invented  the  art  of  preparing  tapioca.  Peschel,  Volkerkunde, 
s.  451. 


132  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LHCT.IT 

World  to  this  Western  World  by  way  of  Holland. 
One  of  them  is  the  coffee-plant,  which,  though 
now  so  widely  spread,  is  the  product  of  a  single 
specimen  transplanted  to  the  Botanic  Garden  at 
Amsterdam  by  Van  Hoorn,  Governor  of  Batavia, 
in  1718  ;  plants  being  sent  afterwards  to  Surinam, 
Dutch  Guiana,  whence  they  spread  over  the 
tropical  parts  of  America.  But  the  best  thing 
ever  introduced  by  way  of  the  Netherlands  was 
Moravian  Christianity.  Spangenberg,  a  most 
able  Bishop  of  the  United  Brethren,  on  his  jour- 
ney to  England  in  1734,  passed  through  Holland, 
and,  at  the  suggestion  of  Zinzendorf,  had  several 
consultations  with  the  Directors  of  the  Dutch 
Trading  Company  for  Surinam.  As  a  result,  the 
United  Brethren  agreed  to  form  one  or  more 
colonies  in  that  country,  with  a  view  to  evangel- 
izing the  native  tribes.  The  next  year,  three  of 
the  Brethren  went  out  to  explore  the  country; 
and,  a  gentleman  in  Amsterdam  having  requested 
that  Moravians  would  settle  upon  the  Rio  de 
Berbice,  and  preach  to  his  negro  slaves  —  that 
territory  then  belonging  to  Holland  —  Dahne  and 
Giittner,  from  Marienborn,  accepted  the  under- 
taking. Those  in  charge  of  the  estates,  however, 
looked  askant  upon  these  humble  men,  and  deter- 
mined to  thwart  their  purpose  —  one  of  the  hun- 
dreds of  cases  in  which  the  greatest  impediment 
to  foreign  missions  has  come  from  persons  bear- 
ing the  Christian  name.  So  rigorous  was  tho 


IKCT.IV.]  IN  BEKBICE.  133 

treatment  of  the  slaves  as  to  cut  off  all  access 
to  them.  To  the  west  of  the  Rio  de  Berbice,  on 
one  of  its  tributaries,  the  Wironje,  at  a  distance 
of  a  hundred  miles  from  the  seacoast,  the  Breth- 
ren secured  (1738)  a  little  resting-place,  which 
they  called  Pilgerhut,  and  there  won  the  confi- 
dence of  neighboring  Arawak  Indians,  some  of 
whom  had  a  partial  understanding  of  the  Dutch 
language.  This  imperfect  opportunity  for  com- 
municating the  truths  of  Christianity  was  im- 
proved by  the  Moravians,  so  far  as  the  necessities 
of  labor  for  their  own  subsistence  would  allow. 
Other  helpers  joined  them  (1739-1741).  Having 
acquired  some  knowledge  of  the  Arawak  lan- 
guage —  the  softest  of  all  Indian  tongues,  with 
a  great  variety  of  moods  and  tenses,  and  capable 
of  great  nicety  of  expression  —  they  began  to 
seek  out  more  distant  savages  in  the  wilderness, 
carrying  provisions  with  them,  traversing  broad 
streams,  and  sleeping  in  the  forest.  For  trans- 
lating the  story  of  Christ's  love  and  suffering  into 
the  vernacular,  as  well  as  in  preaching,  they  had 
the  assistance  of  a  mulatto,  whom  a  gentleman 
gave  to  them,  and  who  afterwards  became  a 
preacher.  At  length  a  serious  impression  was 
made  upon  the  Indians,  though  for  the  first  eight 
years  it  seemed  to  be  hoping  against  hope. 
Within  less  than  ten  years  (1748),  forty-five  per- 
sons were  received  into  the  church,  and  many  of 
these  converts  put  up  their  huts  at  Pilgerhut. 


134  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.IV. 

Related  Indians  on  the  Orinoco  and  on  the  Cor- 
entyn,  hearing  through  converts  the  good  news 
of  salvation,  visited  the  Christian  settlement 
(1750),  and  learned  the  gospel  message  more 
fully,  which  resulted  in  several  companies  of 
heathen  coming  to  live  at  Pilgerhut. 

But  the  great  Adversary  of  missions  seemed 
bent  on  injuring,  indeed  on  ruining,  the  settle- 
ment. An  order  came  from  the  colonial  govern- 
ment forbidding  these  accessions,  and  requiring 
the  missionaries  to  clothe  the  converts,  and  to 
pay  a  tax  for  each  of  them !  Two  of  the  Chris- 
tian Indians  were  impressed  into  military  service, 
which  struck  terror  into  their  companions,  who 
fled  to  the  woods.  Some  of  the  Moravians  felt 
constrained  to  return  to  Europe ;  others  remained 
and  toiled  on,  notwithstanding  manifold  obsta- 
cles, and  they  were  cheered  by  finding  that  the 
gospel  exerted  its  transforming  power  even  upon 
cannibal  tribes  —  tribes  far  more  barbarous  than 
the  Arawaks. 

By  the  year  1756,  Pilgerhut  had  grown  to  be 
a  Christian  colony  of  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  souls,  not  including  unbaptized  children  ; 
and  three  hundred  believers  had  been  won. 
Among  them  there  were  clear  cases  of  genuine 
conversion.  Take  a  specimen.  One  of  the  na- 
tives, desiring  to  write  to  the  Moravians  in 
Europe,  dictated  a  letter  as  follows :  "  Having 
arrived  at  manhood,  I  spent  many  years  without 


LKCT.IT.]  OPPOSITION.  135 

any  knowledge  of  ray  Saviour.  When  I  after- 
wards became  desirous  to  experience  what  I  had 
heard,  it  was  granted  me.  Jesus  has  cleansed 
me  in  his  blood,  and  delivered  me  from  my  dis- 
obedience. This  truth,  that  he  died  and  shed  his 
blood  for  me,  hath  conquered  and  captivated  my 
heart.  This  I  can  never  forget ;  and  therefore 
will  I  love  him  with  all  my  soul,  and  daily  give 
my  heart  to  him." '  The  superintendent  of  the 
mission,  Mr.  Schumann,  called  the  "Apostle  of 
the  Arawaks,"  as  John  Eliot  had  been  called  the 
"Apostle  of  the  Indians"  in  Massachusetts  —  a 
man  who,  four  months  after  his  arrival,  began  to 
preach  in  the  vernacular  —  was  obliged  to  visit 
Europe  (1758).  No  ordained  laborer  then  re- 
mained; a  destructive  sickness  raged;  famine 
followed,  and,  finally,  an  insurrection  of  negroes 
(1763),  who  laid  waste  the  surrounding  country, 
and  brought  the  mission  to  a  close.  The  Breth- 
ren's property,  to  a  considerable  amount,  together 
with  an  Arawak  grammar  and  dictionary,  was 
destroyed. 

Not  long  after  the  station  just  named  was  estab- 
lished at  Pilgerhut  in  Berbice,  the  Moravians  of 
Herrnhut  sent  out  the  nucleus  of  a  settlement 
to  Surinam,  Dutch  Guiana  (1739).  This  was 
under  an  agreement  with  the  Surinam  Company ; 
and  Paramaribo,  the  capital,  and  indeed  the  only 

1  Holmes's  Missions  of  the  United  Bretftren,  245-6. 


136  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.IV. 

town,  was  their  destination.  But,  as  their  neigh- 
bors, whether  Jews  or  nominal  Christians,  were 
forbidden  by  Government  to  attend  domestic  wor- 
ship with  them,  and  as  manual  labor  for  their 
own  support  left  no  opportunity  for  visiting  the 
Indians,  they  removed  to  the  banks  of  the  Cot- 
tika,  a  tributary  of  the  Corentyn,  which  joins 
the  river  Surinam  just  at  its  entrance  into  the 
sea.  There  were  Arawaks  in  the  neighborhood, 
but  the  Brethren  had  only  a  slight  acquaintance 
with  the  language ;  they  became  divided  among 
themselves,  and  that  place  too  was  abandoned 
(1745). 

Nearly  a  decade  after  their  advent  in  Guiana, 
another  Moravian  settlement  was  begun  (1747), 
two  tracts  of  land  being  procured  —  one  on  the 
river  Corentyn,  at  the  extreme  west  of  Dutch 
Guiana,  receiving  the  name  of  Ephraim ;  the  other 
on  the  waters  of  the  Saramacca,  called  Sharon, 
a  little  west  of  the  Surinam  River.  Conversions 
among  the  native  tribes  took  place,  and  there  was 
much  to  encourage  the  hope  of  great  success; 
but  the  Bush  Negroes,  runaway  slaves,  brought 
ruin  to  this  settlement  also.  Its  existence  was 
an  object  of  strong  dislike  to  these  self-emanci- 
pated Africans,  because  the  Caribs,  who  now 
built  villages  on  the  Saramacca,  laid  in  wait  for 
the  fugitives,  being  allowed  fifty  florins  by  the 
Dutch  Government  for  every  one  whom  they 
Beized.  The  Bush  Negroes  made  an  assault  on 


LECT.IT.]  ON  THE  CORENTYN.  137 

Sharon,  killed  some,  seized  a  number  of  prisoners, 
and  set  fire  to  the  premises.  With  a  company  of 
Indians,  the  two  missionaries  left  after  a  while. 
They  were,  however,  reinforced  by  three  more 
from  Europe ;  but,  a  few  days  after  their  arrival, 
two  of  them  died,  and,  in  less  than  a  year,  two 
more  of  the  party.  Notwithstanding  a  measure 
of  spiritual  prosperity  later,  it  became  necessary 
to  abandon  the  place  (1779). 

In  1757,  Missionary  Dahne  took  up  his  abode 
on  the  Corentyn  in  the  midst  of  an  utter  wilder- 
ness. His  life  was  repeatedly  threatened  by  rov- 
ing Indians  ;  he  soon  fell  sick.  We  will  listen  to 
his  own  account  of  yet  other  perils :  "  One  even- 
ing, being  unwell  and  going  to  lie  down  in  my 
hammock,  upon  entering  the  door  of  my  hut,  I 
perceived  a  large  serpent  descending  upon  me 
from  a  shelf  near  the  roof.  In  the  scuffle,  the 
creature  stung  or  bit  me  two  or  three  times  in 
the  head,  and,  pursuing  me  very  closely,  twined 
itself  several  times  round  my  head  and  neck. 
Supposing  that  this  would  be  the  occasion  of 
my  departing  this  life,  I,  for  the  satisfaction  of  my 
brethren,  wrote  the  cause  of  my  death  in  a  few 
words  with  chalk  upon  the  table,  'A  serpent 
has  killed  me,'  lest  they  should  charge  the  In- 
dians with  the  deed.  But  on  a  sudden  that  prom- 
ise of  our  Saviour  to  his  disciples  was  impressed 
upon  my  mind,  '  They  shall  take  up  serpents, 
and  it  shall  not  harm  them '  (Mark  xvi :  18),  and, 


138  MORAVIAN    MISSIONS.  [LKCT.IY. 

seizing  the  creature  with  great  force,  I  tore  it 
loose  and  flung  it  out  of  the  hut.  I  then  laid 
down  to  rest  in  the  peace  of  God."  With  no 
earthly  companion,  the  dear  man,  in  spite  of  pri- 
vations, was  still  contented  and  happy.  "What  a 
record  does  he  make !  "Our  Saviour  was  always 
with  me,  and  comforted  me  with  his  gracious 
presence,  so  that  I  can  truly  say  I  spent  my  time 
in  happiness  and  peace."  After  two  years  of 
solicitude  and  peril,  Dahne  was  relieved  by  three 
missionaries,  who  built  a  little  church  and  dwell- 
ing-house and  laid  out  a  plantation,  to  which  they 
gave  the  renewed  name  of  Ephraim.  Besides 
the  Arawaks,  many  Caribs  and  Warows  visited 
the  place,  and,  when  listening  to  the  story  of  the 
cross,  sometimes  showed  by  their  tears  that  their 
hearts  were  touched.  The  rebellion  of  negro 
slaves  (1763)  broke  up  this  station  as  well ;  but, 
two  years  later,  the  Brethren  selected  a  place 
twelve  miles  farther  up  the  river,  which  they 
named  Hoop.  Thither  baptized  natives  and 
others  began  to  resort,  so  that  by  1783  the 
Christian  Indians  belonging  to  the  settlement 
numbered  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven. 

Among  the  worthy  men  who  at  different  times 
joined  the  mission,  was  John  Jacob  Gottlob 
Fischer  (1789),  a  man  of  rare  energy  and  apti- 
tude for  the  place.  Only  a  few  months  were 
needed  by  him  for  mastering  the  Arawak  lan- 
guage sufficiently  to  preach  in  it.  He  had  yet 


UOT.IVO  BUSH  NEGROES.  139 

earlier  opened  a  school  for  children.  Epidemic 
diseases,  however,  hostile  negroes,  incendiary  fires, 
scarcity,  and  the  war  between  Holland  and  Eng- 
land, finally  broke  up  the  station  at  Hoop  (1808). 
It  was  afterwards  reoccupied  (1812-1816),  and 
then  again  relinquished.  It  will  be  recollected 
that  Surinam,  having  been  seized  by  the  English, 
was  in  1676  restored  to  Holland,  in  exchange  for 
New  York. 

Hitherto  we  have  been  considering  mission 
work,  which  continued  for  seventy  years,  among 
the  Indians  of  Guiana.  We  now  turn  to  a  differ- 
ent race  —  the  race  which  engaged  our  attention 
in  the  last  lecture.  In  the  West  Indies,  fugitive 
slaves  are  called  Maroons ;  in  Guiana,  as  before 
stated,  Bush  Negroes.  They  are  numerous ;  in- 
stead of  diminishing,  they  have  increased  in  num- 
bers, being  now  estimated  at  seventeen  thousand, 
while  the  whole  population  is  perhaps  seventy-five 
thousand.  They  have  a  superior  physique,  and, 
from  their  acquaintance  with  the  colonies  and 
with  retreats  inaccessible  to  white  men,  have 
many  times  proved  dangerous  neighbors.  Scat- 
tered bands  combine,  and  thus  render  themselves 
formidable ;  hence  a  cordon  of  forts  was  con- 
structed by  the  Dutch  for  the  defense  of  the 
colony  at  a  cost  of  seventeen  millions  of  guilders. 
The  Government  of  Surinam,  after  making  peace 
in  1764  with  the  free  negroes  —  free  because  fugi- 
tives from  bondage  —  solicited  the  Moravians  to 


140  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.  iv. 

send  missionaries  among  them.  The  next  year 
three  Brethren  went  out  and  settled  on  the  Sara- 
macca.  The  language  of  the  Bush  Negroes  is  a 
conglomerate  of  several  European  tongues  and 
fragments  of  African  dialects.  They  had  retained 
their  African  superstitions,  and  were  in  bondage 
to  heathen  priests  and  priestesses  skilled  in  prac- 
ticing on  the  credulity  of  the  people.  Like  the 
same  class  in  many  parts  of  the  world,  these  im- 
postors would  pretend  to  become  possessed  of  the 
spirit  of  some  patron  divinity,  and,  under  such 
alleged  inspiration,  exhibit  the  most  violent  agi- 
tation and  frightful  bodily  contortions.  I  have 
witnessed  such  in  India,  and  can  hardly  conceive 
of  anything  more  demoniacal  in  appearance.  In- 
stinctively these  sorcerers  array  themselves  against 
the  missionaries,  "  their  craft  being  in  danger  to 
be  set  at  naught ;  "  and  the  Moravians,  with  all 
their  experience  in  unpromising  fields,  have  sel- 
dom found  one  more  discouraging  than  this. 
Still,  they  were  not  absolutely  without  success ; 
and  it  was  a  great  help  that  the  chief  of  the  Sara- 
macca  Bush  Negroes,  Arabi,  the  first  convert  and 
first  native  teacher  of  his  nation,  became  a  true 
Christian  and  their  firm  friend.  He  was  a  man 
of  strong  good  sense.  Before  avowing  himself 
a  convert,  having  heard  the  missionaries  say  that 
no  idol  could  help  or  hurt  any  one,  he  went  to 
the  river  where  an  alligator,  the  village  god,  had 
his  haunt.  Seeing  the  creature,  he  delivered  this 


LBCT.  IV.] 


BAMBEY.  141 


harangue:  "I  intend  to  shoot  thee.  Now,  if  thou 
art  a  god,  my  bullet  will  do  thee  no  harm ;  if  thou 
art  a  mere  creature,  it  will  kill  thee."  His  shot 
was  fatal.  After  becoming  a  Christian,  he  one 
day  took  occasion  to  address  the  heathen  with 
great  plainness  in  regard  to  future  punishment ; 
but  some  of  them  replied  that,  as  so  many  were 
to  share  in  it,  the  suffering  would  be  less  to  each 
one.  To  which  Arabi  answered:  "Try  the  ex- 
periment, and  all  of  you  put  your  fingers  together 
into  the  fire,  and  let  us  see  whether  each  indi- 
vidual will  not  feel  the  same  pain  as  if  he  were 
alone." 

The  negroes  moved  their  settlement  from 
time  to  time.  Bambey  and  New  Bambey  (1784), 
which  became  the  capital  of  the  Bush  Negroes, 
are  stations  well  known  in  earlier  Moravian 
annals.  The  Brethren  gave  the  former  place 
(1773)  that  name  because,  in  the  native  lan- 
guage, the  word  signifies  Only  Wait,  or  Have 
Patience  —  Bambey,  "  By-and-by."  This  signifi- 
cance conveys  a  needful  suggestion.  In  view  of 
frequent  sickness  and  deaths,  and  the  intense 
superstition  of  the  negroes,  these  missionaries 
had  need  of  "long  patience."  In  all  evangel- 
istic fields,  some  spot  may  be  looked  for  which 
will  bear  to  be  christened  "  Only  Wait." 

The  roving  habits  of  Bush  Negroes  greatly  inter- 
fered with  their  progress.  Occasionally,  as  in  181 0, 
a  revival  of  diabolism  seized  upon  them.  The  diiri- 


142  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.IV. 

culty  of  obtaining  supplies  of  food  and  other 
necessaries,  and  the  debilitating  effects  of  the  cli- 
mate, often  brought  the  missionaries  into  a  pitiable 
condition.  One  of  the  Brethren,  Rudolph  Stoll, 
relates  that,  while  suffering  from  a  most  danger- 
ous attack  of  acclimating  fever,  his  body  was 
covered  with  painful  sores.  Lying  in  his  cot, 
alone  and  helpless  as  a  child,  he  saw  an  immense 
swarm  of  ants  enter  through  the  roof  and  spread 
themselves  over  the  inside  of  his  apartment. 
Expecting  to  be  devoured  by  these  voracious 
visitors,  he  commended  his  soul  to  God,  and 
looked  for  speedy  release  from  suffering.  The 
insects  covered  his  bed,  entered  his  sores,  caused 
intense  pain,  but  soon  retired ;  and  from  that 
time  the  good  man  began  to  recover. 

In  1790,  the  negroes  in  Upper  Bushland 
showed  a  strong  desire  to  be  taught,  and  were 
visited  from  time  to  time ;  but  sickness  and 
deaths  among  the  missionaries  prevented  the 
establishment  of  a  station  in  that  quarter.  By 
the  close  of  the  century  (1773-1800),  fifty-nine 
heathen  at  Bambey  had  received  baptism,  of 
whom  seventeen  had  died  in  the  faith,  and  there 
were  forty-nine  persons  then  belonging  to  the 
congregation.  Portions  of  the  New  Testament, 
as  well  as  a  hymn-book,  have  been  translated  into 
the  native  language.  Erasmus  Schmidt  repaired 
to  the  place  (1840)  and  labored  abundantly,  till 
he  fell  a  victim  to  the  deadly  climate  (1845). 


MOT.  iv.]  BAMBEY.  143 

Afterwards  (1848)  the  station  was  removed  to 
the  waterfall  Gansee,  two  days'  journey  beyond 
the  bounds  of  the  colony,  where  Barsoe  began 
his  labors  in  1849,  but  died  after  a  few  months. 
For  three  years  (1850-1853),  the  widow  of  Mis- 
sionary Hartmann  remained  there  alone,  instruct- 
ing old  and  young,  and  exhibiting  a  rare  amount 
of  unostentatious,  persistent  heroism.  Eighteen 
years,  from  1826  onward,  she  labored  with  her 
husband  ;  but  after  his  death,  so  far  from  leaving 
the  country  or  seeking  a  post  of  comfort,  she 
volunteered  for  the  hardest  service  and  the  most 
unhealthy  region.  She  went  among  the  Bush 
Negroes,  in  their  land  of  death,  and  everywhere 
secured  their  confidence  and  gratitude.  Through 
her  whole  missionary  career,  she  manifested  a 
devotedness  rarely  seen.  Wherever  the  climate 
was  most  unhealthy,  the  privations  greatest,  and 
service  the  most  laborious,  thither  was  she  ready 
to  go.  At  Berg-en-Dal,  notwithstanding  the  en- 
mity of  the  man  who  managed  the  plantation 
there,  and  who  would  gladly  have  driven  her 
away,  but  dared  not  for  fear  of  incensing  his 
negroes,  she  stayed  on.  Contempt,  poverty,  dis- 
ease, could  not  force  her  away.  At  the  station 
Koffy  Camp,  in  an  ordinary  negro  hut  open  on 
both  sides,  she  lived  among  wild  and  lawless 
savages,  suffering  from  an  entire  want  of  suitable 
food.  Fully  entitled  is  her  name  to  a  place 
among  the  heroines  of  the  missionary  enterprise. 


144  MOEAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.  iv. 

She  was  a  mother  of  missionaries.  One  son,  for- 
merly among  the  Australian  natives  of  Victoria, 
is  at  this  time  among  Indians  in  Canada ;  another 
son  has  seen  more  than  thirty  years  of  useful 
service,  chiefly  in  Kaffraria,  where  he  lost  all 
his  private  property  in  the  recent  Basuto  war. 
A  daughter  became  the  wife  of  a  missionary,  Mr. 
Heyde,  at  Kyelang  in  Thibet. 

Two  Moravians,  Sand  (1851)  and  Bauch 
(1854),  were  taken  fatally  sick  almost  imme- 
diately upon  their  arrival  at  this  place.  Since 
then  the  congregation,  numbering  one  hundred 
and  seventy  souls,  has  been  without  a  settled 
missionary. 

Just  a  century  having  elapsed,  there  was  a 
spiritual  awakening  among  heathen  dwellers  in 
the  dense  forests  of  the  interior,  far  up  the 
Surinam  and  -Saramacca  rivers.  This  occurred 
at  Gingee,  the  present  name  for  Old  Barn- 
bey,  when  the  prayers  of  missionaries  buried 
long  ago  seemed  to  be  finding  fulfillment  in  a 
renunciation  of  heathenism  and  a  desire  to  be- 
come Christians.  This  was  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  John  King,  a  converted  negro, 
belonging  to  the  Matuari  tribe,  who  made  preach- 
ing tours  among  the  Bush  Negroes.  The  pro- 
posed visit  of  missionaries  to  that  region  was 
prevented  by  the  death,  within  a  few  months,  of 
five  of  their  number.  We  will  listen  to  John 
King,  at  Maripastoon,  now  an  efficient  helper. 


LECi.nr.]  TWO   TROPHIES.  145 

He  tells  us  (1868)  how  his  old  associates  were 
bent  „  on  holding  him  to  their  idolatry.  "  They 
said,  '  You  must  kneel  down  and  adore  our  god.' 
But  I  cried,  '  No,  no  ! '  Upon  this  they  fell  into 
a  violent  rage,  and  were  all  very  fierce,  crying, 
'  And  you  shall  worship  our  god  before  you  are 
joined  to  the  church.'  Thus  they  all  cried  out 
at  me.  The  noise  wearied  me  when  they  sur- 
rounded me  in  this  manner ;  yet  I  would  not  wor- 
ship the  idol.  I  fell  on  my  knees,  and  prayed  to 
God,  saying,  '  O  my  Lord  Jesus,  if  I  do  all  this  of 
myself  and  in  my  own  strength,  then  may  all  my 
words  prove  vain  !  But  if  thou,  my  Lord  Jesus, 
hast  thyself  given  me  this  charge  to  perform  it, 
I  pray  thee,  my  Lord,  help  me,  that  thy  words 
may  be  manifest,  and  that  they  may  all  perceive 
that  thou  hast  called  me ! '  And  when  I  had 
thus  called  on  the  name  of  the  Lord,  they  rose 
from  their  seats  and  went  away  murmuring."  l 
Another,  Kalkoen,  an  aged  and  influential  chief, 
prayed  thus  at  Maripastoon,  one  of  the  present 
out-stations :  "  I  am  a  chieftain,  O  God,  yet  I 
am  nothing.  Thou  hast  appointed  me  to  govern 
this  people  ;  as  thy  servant,  I  have  to  watch  over 
it  for  good.  But  I  have  turned  my  back  on  thee 
in  the  darkness  of  my  ignorance.  I  have  fol- 
lowed the  wicked  customs  of  my  ancestors,  and 
obeahs  and  witchcraft  and  idolatry  have  made 

1  Periodical  Accounts,  XXVIII,  146. 
10 


146  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.IV. 

me  turn  my  back  on  thee.  But  now  I  turn  away 
from  all  these  works  of  the  Devil;  I  and  my 
children  will  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  them 
forever.  I  was  ignorant,  O  God,  and  therefore 
I  sinned  against  thee ;  but  now  I  feel  my  guilt. 
Pardon  all  my  sins,  O  my  God,  and  preserve 
me  from  returning  to  my  old  ways,  and  help  me 
to  obey  thee.  I  desire  now  to  be  quite  thine 
own.  And  now  I  ask  thy  aid  to  enable  me  to 
lead  my  children,  my  people,  unto  thee." ' 

The  Moravian  settlements  established  in  behalf 
of  Surinam  slaves,  being  remote  from  the  coast, 
made  it  desirable  for  one  or  more  of  the  Brethren 
to  live  at  Paramaribo,  that  there  might  be  an 
agency  in  the  capital.  Hence  another  experi- 
ment was  made  in  that  city.  The  tailoring  busi- 
ness was  started;  and,  negroes  hired  from  their 
masters  being  employed,  access  to  slaves  for 
religious  instruction  was  thus  obtained.  The 
vehement  prejudice  which  had  existed  in  that 
city  against  the  Moravians  gradually  yielded. 
Some  of  the  negroes  began  tp  show  an  inter- 
est in  the  gospel,  and  at  length  were  baptized 
(1776).  A  chapel  was  built  (1778),  and  the  next 
year  there  were  a  hundred  negroes  at  the  preach- 
ing service,  besides  forty  who  received  special 
instruction  with  reference  to  being  baptized. 
Converts  displayed  an  intelligent  firmness  in 

1  Periodical  Accounts,  XXV,  351. 


LECT.IV.J  AT   PARAMARIBO.  147 

maintaining  a  stand  as  Christians.  While  the 
heathen  negroes  were  one  day  engaged  in  a  dance, 
Governor  Tessier  went  up  to  a  female  slave, 
whom  he  had  known  as  a  celebrated  dancer,  and, 
with  a  view  to  test  her  sincerity,  offered  her  a 
present  if  she  would  join  in  the  amusement  —  an 
unwarrantable  temptation.  Declining  the  bribe, 
she  asked  if  he  did  not  know  that  she,  upon 
baptism,  had  changed  her  name  from  Krah  to 
Elizabeth,  and  was  no  longer  the  same  person. 
His  Excellency  replied :  "  Yes,  I  know  it,  and 
you  do  right ;  keep  this  in  mind  till  the  end  of 
your  life,  and  it  will  be  well  with  you."  A  lad 
of  sixteen,  who  was  threatened  by  his  master,  a 
Jew,  with  flogging  on  account  of  his  baptism, 
replied :  "  That  you  may  do ;  but  you  cannot 
thereby  rob  me  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  the  grace 
he  has  given  me  in  these  days." 

At  the  opening  of  the  present  century,  the 
baptized  negroes  amounted  to  three  hundred  and 
fifteen,  besides  many  catechumens  and  other  regu- 
lar attendants  at  the  chapel.  Fifteen  years  later 
(1815),  the  congregation  amounted  to  six  hun- 
dred and  sixty-three,  of  whom  more  than  five 
hundred  were  communicants.  One  of  the  Breth- 
ren wrote  :  "  Our  monthly  prayer-days,  as  also 
the  communion-days,  are  distinguished  by  a  pecul- 
iar experience  of  the  grace  and  love  of  our  Sav- 
iour toward  his  flock."  Leprosy  prevails  to  a  sad 
extent  among  the  negroes,  and  spiritual  leprosy  in 


148  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.IT. 

yet  more  revolting  forms ;  but  the  word  and  grace 
of  God  prove  adequate  to  remove  this  greater  evil. 

The  missionaries  at  Paramaribo  extended  their 
labors  to  plantations  round  about.  The  Govern- 
ment became  more  favorably  disposed,  and  con- 
signed to  them  a  piece  of  land  on  the  river  Com- 
mewyne,  where  had  stood  a  fortification  called 
Sommelsdyke,  and  two  missionaries  removed  there 
(1786)  ;  but,  the  place  being  peculiarly  unhealthy, 
both  died  within  a  few  weeks.  Similar  mortality 
has  also  at  times  been  experienced  even  at  the 
capital.  The  case  has  occurred  in  which  thirteen 
deaths  have  taken  place  among  these  Christian 
laborers  within  the  space  of  six  months.  But 
men  "baptized  for  the  dead"  were  always  ready 
to  take  places  thus  made  vacant.  At  Sommels- 
dyke, before  the  end  of  the  first  year,  more  than 
forty  slaves  had  been  received  into  the  church, 
and  there  were  upwards  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
regular  catechumens.  On  the  part  of  masters 
there  was  opposition,  some  of  whom  exacted  an 
increase  of  labor  on  the  Sabbath  in  order  to 
prevent  the  negroes  from  attending  divine  ser- 
vice ;  and  yet  the  station  was  for  a  time  success- 
ful, though  in  1818  it  had  to  be  relinquished. 

Taking  an  inventory  of  all  these  Moravian  la- 
bors in  English  and  Dutch  Guiana,  we  find,  at  the 
opening  of  the  present  century,  that,  during 
the  sixty-five  years  then  closed,  one  hundred  and 
fifty-nine  brethren  and  sisters  had  been  engaged 


LECT.IV.]  AT   SOMMELSDYKE.  149 

in  the  work;  seventy-five  of  whom  —  more  than 
one  annually  —  had  died  on  the  ground,  sixty-three 
had  returned  to  Europe,  and  twenty-one  were 
still  at  their  stations.  Eight  hundred  and  fifty-live 
Indians,  fifty-nine  Bush  Negroes,  and  seven  hun- 
dred and  thirty-one  slaves  had  been  baptized  — 
sixteen  hundred  and  forty-five  in  all.  Some  of 
the  coolies  also,  brought  from  Eastern  Asia,  have 
shared  in  the  blessings  of  that  gospel  which  is 
carried  to  South  America  for  the  benefit  of  those 
whose  proper  home  is  Western  Africa.  Two 
years  ago,  all  the  ad  tilts  baptized  at  one  station 
in  Demarara  were  Hindus.  To  the  labors  of  Mo- 
ravian missionaries,  almost  exclusively,  are  the 
black  population  of  Surinam  who  profess  Chris- 
tianity indebted. 

The  station  at  Paramaribo  is  now  flourishing. 
In  1828,  a  large  new  church  was  dedicated,  the 
Government  and  citizens  lending  aid ;  and  a 
society  of  wealthy  inhabitants  has  been  formed 
to  assist  the  mission.  A  pleasing  proof  of  the 
value  now  set  upon  Moravian  ministrations  is 
afforded  by  the  fact  of  the  erection  of  a  church 
at  Charlottenburg,  which  is  situated  in  a  curve 
of  the  river  Commewyne,  to  which  the  congrega- 
tion there  contributed  more  than  twelve  hundred 
florins.  Three  negro  brethren  gave  between  them 
no  less  than  sixty-four  florins ; '  and  a  poor 


Periodical  Accounts,  XXXII,  103. 


150  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.  iv. 

old  woman  who  brought  five  florins  could  not 
be  persuaded  to  keep  a  part  of  this  sum  for  her 
own  necessities.  For  thirty -three  years  before 
the  Emancipation  Act,  Government  had  commis- 
sioned the  Moravians  to  take  pastoral  charge  of 
slaves  and  prisoners  in  the  forts  and  at  military 
posts ;  yet,  down  to  1844,  slaves  were  not  allowed 
to  learn  to  read.  The  cit}>-  of  Paramaribo,  which 
presents  an  inviting  appearance  outwardly  —  the 
streets  broad,  straight,  lined  with  orange,  lemon, 
tamarind,  and  other  trees  —  has  been  the  scene 
of  several  great  fires ;  but  in  the  midst  of  them, 
one  in  1821  and  three  in  1831,  Divine  Providence 
signally  interposed  to  save  the  mission  buildings. 
This  is  at  present  (1881)  one  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful Moravian  missions.  The  New  Testament 
in  Negro-English  has  been  printed  by  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society ;  numerous  stations 
have  been  begun,  fourteen  in  all,  with  seventy- 
four  missionaries  and  twenty-one  thousand  six 
hundred  and  eighty-three  adherents,  of  whom 
more  than  six  thousand  (6,201)  are  communicant 
members ;  while  in  Demarara,  or  British  Guiana, 
where  the  mission  was  renewed  in  1878,  there  are 
two  stations,  four  missionaries,  and  about  three 
hundred  church-members. 

It  was  characteristic  of  Moravian  habits  of 
thought,  especially  the  habit  of  ranking  spiritual 
interests  before  all  others,  that  the  baptism  of 
the  first  negro  convert  at  Paramaribo  should  be 


LBCT.IV.J  PRESENT    CONDITION.  151 

commemorated  by  a  centenary  observance  (July 
21,  1876).  The  church,  which  will  seat  two 
thousand  four  hundred  persons,  was  decorated 
with  garlands  of  flowers,  and  with  various  spe- 
cies of  palm-branches ;  three  public  and  thronged 
services  were  held ;  the  Te  Deum,  translated  into 
Negro-English,  was  sung ;  the  document  record- 
ing the  baptism  —  nearly  destroyed  by  the  action 
of  the  climate  —  was  brought  out  and  read  ;  and 
the  occasion  closed  by  the  Brethren  entering 
anew  into  covenant  with  one  another  to  main- 
tain mutual  love  and  love  to  the  Saviour,  upon 
that  opening  of  a  new  century  of  Christian 
labor. 

On  leaving  the  continent  of  South  America, 
it  may  be  well  for  us  to  have  in  mind  a  distinct 
impression  regarding  some  of  the  present  embar- 
rassments under  which  Moravians  are  laboring.  I 
do  not  now  refer  so  much  to  those  arising  from  the 
climate,  or  from  the  action  of  physical  causes. 
For  example,  the  work  at  Annaszorg  was  begun 
in  1850,  on  the  banks  of  the  Warappa  Creek, 
which  connects  the  river  Commewyne  with  the 
sea  twenty  miles  east  of  the  river's  mouth ;  but 
a  shoal  formed  in  front  of  the  creek,  that  pre- 
vented the  return,  at  ebb-tide,  of  water  which  the 
flood  had  brought.  Plantations  being  thus  ruined 
by  salt  water,  owners  and  laborers  were  obliged 
to  disperse.  Nor  do  I  refer  to  such  slight  annoy- 
ances as  that  the  preacher  may  sometimes  see  a 


152  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  CLKCT.IV. 

parrot-snake  drop  from  the  rafters  to  the  table 
where  he  stands.  The  visits  which  Moravians 
pay  periodically  to  remote  plantations  are  toil- 
some and  hazardous  boat- voyages.  To  reach,  for 
instance,  one  of  the  present  scenes  of  labor, 
Goejaba,  the  Brethren,  have  to  pass  thirty-seven 
waterfalls  at  the  risk  of  their  lives.  Generally, 
in  the  forest  savannas  stretching  hundreds  of 
miles,  sufficient  dry  ground  for  an  encampment 
can  scarcely  be  found ;  anywhere  there  is  a  lia- 
bility to  a  flight  of  poisoned  arrows ;  everywhere 
the  atmosphere  is  saturated  with  malaria;  over- 
head among  the  trees-  are  gigantic  serpents; 
underneath  are  ferocious  beasts ;  across  one's 
path  are  the  webs  of  monstrous  and  poisonous 
spiders ;  every  decayed  log  swarms  with  centi- 
pedes or  scorpions.1 

Reference  is  had  rather  to  social  and  moral 
impediments.  The  Emancipation  Act  did  not 
take  full  effect  till  1863,  the  decade  of  apprentice- 
ship closing  on  July  1st  of  that  year;  but  new 
difficulties  have  arisen  from  the  very  condition 
of  freedom.  The  negro  is  morally  feeble,  and 
peculiarly  fond  of  change.  He  is  now  at  liberty 
to  roam  from  one  plantation  to  another,  and 
hence  is  less  likely  to  remain  under  uniform  re- 
ligious instruction  and  other  good  influences. 
Those  more  thrifty  will  perhaps  get  possession 

1  Field's  Indian  Bibliography,  45-46. 


IKCT.IV.]  PRESENT   CONDITION.  153 

of  an  abandoned  estate  so  remote  or  difficult  of 
access  as  practically  to  put  them  beyond  the 
reach  of  Christian  labor.  Meanwhile  Jesuit  Fa- 
thers offer  pecuniary  bribes  to  draw  away  those 
attending  upon  Protestant  services,  and  Roman 
Catholic  interference  may  be  looked  for  on  every 
mission-field  under  the  sun.  To  some  extent  at 
the  stations,  and  of  course  still  more  in  wild  for- 
ests, the  besetting  sins  of  gross  sensualism  abound ; 
and,  with  even  advanced  converts,  constant  effort 
is  required  to  neutralize  a  lurking  tendency  to- 
ward obeahism,  and  various  superstitions  brought 
from  Africa.  Sickness  is  deemed  to  result  from 
some  malignant  charm,  and  cure  is  sought  from  a 
counter-charm.  The  unevangelized  or  partially 
evangelized  savages  often  rub  poison  under  their 
nails,  with  which  they  scratch  and  thus  kill  one 
another.  Iron  rings  are  worn  on  the  knuckles, 
sharp  at  the  outer  edge  and  steeped  in  poison. 
No  wonder  Missionary  Schmidt  said,  "  We  are, 
here,  like  a  gnat  against  a  tiger ! "  The  natives 
are  constantly  tormented  by  superstitious  fears. 
Reciprocal  distrust  reigns;  every  one  is  afraid  of 
being  poisoned  or  bewitched  by  his  neighbor,  and 
resorts  to  diabolical  devices  for  protection.  Is  a 
snake  killed  unintentionally?  It  will  be  brought 
into  the  village  with  shouting,  howling  and 
dancing,  which  last  for  a  day  and  night  —  some- 
times for  a  week  —  till  it  is  buried,  in  order  to 
propitiate  the  evil  spirits,  which  might  otherwise 


154  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.IV. 

be  angry  at  the  death.  Even  at  Paramaribo, 
many  of  the  negroes  have  what  they  call  the 
Bukru-sickness,  by  which  is  meant  that  they  are 
seized  with  an  evil  spirit,  who  is  represented  as 
a  specter  that  appears  here  and  there  in  the  form 
of  a  dwarf,  and  manifests  his  presence  by  rapping, 
and  sometimes  by  throwing  stones.  Do  not 
superstition  and  credulity  show  the  unity  of 
black  and  white  races?  As  in  the  West  Indies, 
the  family  life  of  the  negro  is  generally  of  the 
grossest  kind,  with  a  sad  want  of  order  and 
decency. 

Most  disheartening  is  it  to  cast  the  good  seed 
of  the  Word  into  such  a  slough.  What  reason- 
able expectation  can  there  be  that  plants  of  right- 
eousness will  spring  up?  If  religious  fruits  pre- 
sent anything  more  than  the  faintest  resemblance 
to  what  is  witnessed  among  superior  races  and 
older  Christian  communities,  are  not  the  condi- 
tions of  probability  fulfilled  ?  Contemplate  speci- 
mens. Here  is  one  of  the  most  hopeless  of  cases, 
Broos,  who  had  been  a  notorious  rebel  chief  of 
black  freebooters  in  the  forests,  and'  who  yet 
became  a  sincere  convert  two  years  ago  (1879). 
Do  deeper  convictions  fasten  upon  any  of  our 
backsliders  than  upon  this  one  at  Goejaba  ?  "  My 
sins  go  over  my  head  ;  I  have  denied  my  Lord 
more  than  Peter  did.  My  conscience  leaves  me 
no  rest  night  or  day.  Oh,  tell  me  what  to  do 
to  get  rid  of  this  fearful  curse  that  rests  upon 


utci.iv.]  INDIVIDUAL  CASES.  155 

me,  for  I  can  bear  it  no  longer !  My  sin  is  terri- 
bly great."  '  Do  we,  in  our  neighborhood,  occa- 
sionally hear  delightful  testimonies  to  the  grace 
of  God  on  beds  of  pain  ?  Missionary  Lebart 
writes  (1866) :  "  A  young  woman  suffering  from 
leprosy,  when  asked  how  she  was,  said,  '  Oh, 
teacher,  I  am  doing  very  well,  thanks  to  the 
Saviour  ! '  '  But,'  I  said,  '  you  are  lying  there 
quite  alone  and  suffering  great  pain.'  '  Oh,  yes,' 
she  replied,  '  my  sufferings  are  sometimes  fearful, 
and  occasionally  fever  and  cold  come  in  addition 
to  my  old  disease,  and  I  feel  intense  pain  in 
my  back  and  stomach,  so  that  for  many  nights 
I  cannot  get  any  sleep.  Still  it  is  well  with  me, 
for  the  Saviour  is  near  and  comforts  me  ;  and  this 
is  so  delightful  that  I  can  sometimes,  for  a  brief 
moment,  forget  my  sufferings.  Sometimes  the 
Holy  Spirit  leads  me  to  Gethsemane,  before  Pilate 
and  Herod,  and  to  Golgotha;  and  then  I  say  to 
myself,  '  Behold  what  the  Saviour  has  borne  for 
me !  Surely  I  ought  to  be  able  to  bear  a  little 
pain,  for  I  am  a  sinful  creature.  Nothing  de- 
lights me  more  than  the  contemplation  of  our 
Saviour's  atoning  death,  and  his  words  and  deeds, 
and  the  Psalms.  Oh,  teacher,  I  cannot  say  enough 
about  the  joy  and  comfort  I  derive  from  them.'  " 2 
What  can  our  religion  do  for  the  negro  women 


1  Periodical  Accounts,  XXVI,  395. 
x  Periodical  Accounts,  XXVI,  397-8. 


156  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.  iv. 

of  Guiana  ?  Abiena,  who  had  been  a  most  big- 
oted, benighted  heathen  and  a  fierce  enemy  to 
the  Christians,  presented  herself  for  baptism  at 
Koffy  Camp  (1866),  and  received  the  name  of 
Eve.  Weeping  for  joy  at  the  ordinance,  she 
addressed  those  present :  "  My  brethren  and 
sisters,  listen  to  what  I  have  to  say.  We  are 
here  in  God's  presence.  He  hears  and  sees 
everything.  He  knows  us  all  thoroughly.  He 
also  knows  me.  I  do  not  know  much;  but  this 
one  thing  I  truly  know,  that  I  am  now  a  child 
of  God  and  Jesus  Christ,  who  purchased  me,  a 
poor,  poor  being,  with  his  blood.  You  know 
that  I  was  a  servant  and  slave  to  the  Devil,  but 
—  great,  great  praise  be  to  God  on  high  !  —  that 
is  all  past  and  gone.  Do  you  hear  that  ?  The 
Saviour  has  made  me  free.  His  death  is  my  life. 
This  heart  of  mine  belongs  to  him.  I  will  cleave 
to  him.  Thus  I  will  live,  thus  I  will  die.  These 
are  my  words,  and  they  show  truly  what  is  in 
my  heart."  J 

At  the  centenary  in  Paramaribo,  it  appeared 
that  in  that  place  twelve  thousand  persons  have 
been  baptized,  and  seven  thousand  and  three 
hundred  have  been  admitted  to  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per. In  the  congregation,  at  that  date,  there 
were  over  two  thousand  communicants  (2,443), 
and  there  are  six  thousand  eight  hundred  souls 
under  the  charge  of  the  Brethren. 

*  Periodical  Accounts,  XXVIII,  148. 


MOT.  ivo  MOSQTJITIA.  157 

We  now  proceed  northward ;  and  it  will  be 
noticed  that,  throughout  these  lectures,  the  order 
in  which  missions  are  taken  up  is  determined 
partly  by  geographical,  as  well  as  chronological, 
relationship.  From  Guiana  to  the  Mosquito 
coast  is  a  sail  equal  to  two  thirds  of  the  dis- 
tance from  here  to  England.  This  tract,  called 
Mosquitia,  on  the  northeastern  projection  of  Cen- 
tral America,  washed  by  the  Caribbean  Sea,  is 
a  small  native  state,  with  an  area  of  from  fifteen 
to  twenty  thousand  miles  —  the  same  as  West 
Virginia.  The  coast,  for  about  two  hundred 
miles,  from  Bluefields  Lagoon  to  Cape  Gracias  a 
Dios,  is  low,  level,  hot  and  humid;  lagoons  and 
inland  channels  communicating  with  one  another 
are  numberless ;  the  country  well  watered,  ex- 
tremely fertile,  with  a  tropical  vegetation  exceed- 
ingly varied  and  luxuriant.  Mahogany  and  other 
hard  woods  grow  in  great  profusion,  and  are 
largely  exported  ;  India  rubber  has  also  become 
an  important  article  of  trade.  Cedars  of  prodi- 
gious size,  and  reaching  a  height  of  two  hundred 
feet,  may  be  seen.  Here  too  is  the  towering 
Palma  Real,  cabbage-palm,  the  most  beauti- 
ful of  all  trees  belonging  to  that  family  in  our 
hemisphere.  Jaguars  abound  in  the  forests; 
apes  are  abundant;  venomous  serpents  are  com- 
mon in  the  gardens  and  houses,  and  alligators 
in  the  rivers. 

The  population   consists   chiefly  of  Indians  — 


158  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.IV. 

Wulwa,  Sum,  Waiknas,  and  Caribs,  the  other 
name  for  whom,  Cannibals,  has  entered  our  lan- 
guage as  a  common  noun,  and  indicates  one  of  the 
horrid  practices  of  that  fierce  race.1  Of  these 
tribes,  the  Moseos,  Mosquitos,2  from  whom  the 
country  takes  its  name,  are  superior  to  the  rest ; 
though  all  are  squalid  savages,  ignorant  and  de- 
graded, among  whom  polygamy  and  infanticide 
are  common.  They  subsist  for  the  most  part  by 
the  chase  and  by  fishing;  but  their  principal 
source  of  gain  from  May  to  August  is  the  tortoise. 
Like  all  such  people,  they  are  thoroughly  im- 
provident; and  the  Indian,  if  he  has  nothing  to 
eat,  invites  himself  to  some  hut  not  so  badly  off 
as  his  own.  And  here  again,  back  from  the  coast, 
we  light  upon  Bush  Negroes,  who  poison  one 
another  in  their  bread  and  their  rum ;  who  are 
swayed  by  a  dark,  gross  idolatry,  each  village 
having  a  special  god.  Stones,  trees,  wood-ants 
and  serpents  are  worshiped.  There  are  also 
black  and  colored  Creoles,  Samboes  or  half  In- 
dians. Among  these  various  races,  regard  is 
paid  exclusively  to  evil  spirits,  their  whole  re- 
ligion consisting  in  a  dread  of  malignant  powers 
and  of  death.  Siva,  the  spirit  of  the  waters, 

1  Edaces    humanarum    carnium    novi   helluones    anthropophagi, 
Caribes  alias  Cannibales  appellati. —  Peter  Martyr. 

2  Die  Moseos    oder    Mosquito  —  Indianer,  eigentlich   Jfissitos; 
sind  keine  reinen   Indianer  mehr,  sondern  fast  sdmmtlich  Mufatten 
und  Sambos. —  Waitz  :  Anthropologie  der  Naturvolker,  IV,  a.  289. 


LBCT.IV.]  GOVERNMENT.  159 

is  deemed  peculiarly  powerful ;  the  rainbow  is 
his  ensign,  which  he  hoists  when  angry.  Hence 
natives  will  not  leave  the  house  while  a  rainbow 
is  visible.  Thus  they  pervert  the  divine  token 
of  peace  and  covenant  promise  into  a  symbol  of 
terror.  Medical  sorcerers  of  both  sexes,  Sukias, 
so  called,  supposed  to  have  supernatural  agency, 
are  at  hand. 

The  whole  population  of  Mosquitia  probably 
does  not  exceed  one  hundred  thousand,  if  indeed 
it  is  not  much  less.  The  chief  town,  Bluefields, 
is  a  village  straggling  for  a  mile  and  a  half  along 
a  lagoon,  and  has  eight  or  nine  hundred  inhabi- 
tants, Negroes,  Mulattoes,  Spaniards,  Englishmen, 
Americans,  and  a  few  Germans;  the  English 
language  being  in  use  there,  and  somewhat  gen- 
erally 011  the  coast.  Intemperance  is  almost 
universal.  Occasional  tornadoes  bring  devas- 
tation ;  tli at  of  1865  destroyed  nearly  all  the 
churches  and  mission  houses,  and  that  of  Octo- 
ber, 1877,  left  only  twelve  houses  standing  in 
Bluefields. 

The  Mosquito  shore  was  formerly  under  the 
protection  of  Great  Britain.  It  will  be  recol- 
lected that  the  difficulties  which  had  arisen  here 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
were  settled  by  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty, 
which  bound  those  governments  "  not  to  occu- 
py, fortify,  colonize,  or  exercise  dominion  over, 
the  Mosquito  coast,  or  any  part  of  Central 


160  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLBCT.IV. 

America."  The  proceedings  of  England  have 
seemed,  from  the  first,  very  much  like  a  political 
farce.  In  1687,  a  Mosquito  chief  was  taken  to 
Jamaica,  with  a  view  to  his  placing  the  coun- 
try under  the  protection  of  Great  Britain.  Sir 
Hans  Sloane  relates  how  the  man,  escaping  from 
his  keepers,  "  pulled  off  the  European  clothes  his 
friends  had  put  on,  and  climbed  to  the  top  of  a 
tree."  A  more  recent  Mosquito  monarch  was 
crowned  at  Belize  in  1825 ;  and  an  English  writer, 
describing  the  occasion,  says :  "  Before  his  chiefs 
could  swear  allegiance  to  their  monarch,  it  was 
necessary  that  they  should  profess  Christianity ; 
and  accordingly,  with  shame  be  it  recorded,  they 
were  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and 
of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  They  dis- 
played total  ignorance  of  this  ceremony,  and, 
when  asked  to  give  their  names,  took  the  titles 
of  Lord  Rodney,  Lord  Nelson,  or  some  other 
celebrated  officer,  grievously  disappointed  when 
told  that  they  could  only  be  baptized  by  simple 
Christian  names.  After  this  solemn  mockery  was 
concluded,  the  whole  assembly  adjourned  to  a 
large  schoolroom,  to  eat  the  coronation  dinner, 
when  these  poor  creatures  got  intoxicated  with 
rum  —  a  suitable  conclusion  to  a  farce  as  wicked 
and  blasphemous  as  ever  disgraced  a  Christian 
country."1  In  1861,  the  independence  of  Mos- 

1  Dunn's  Central  America,  1828. 


LECT.  IT.]  THE  MISSION.  161 

quitia  was  proclaimed,  and  King  George,  an 
Indian,  was  recognized  as  hereditary  chief.  At 
the  present  time,  the  political  condition  is  ex- 
tremely unsettled.  The  Government  of  Nicara- 
gua is  endeavoring  to  obtain  possession  of  the 
coast,  and  no  law  or  safety  exists.  Captains  in 
the  navy  and  in  the  merchant-service,  who  visit 
the  coast,  have  been  in  the  habit  of  baptizing 
children  whether  their  parents  are  married  or 
not.  Roman  Catholic  priests  will  baptize  any 
who  desire  it,  without  the  least  instruction,  six 
shillings  a  head  being  the  price.  Anglo-Saxon 
residents  sometimes  sink  below  the  natives  in 
their  morals.  Indian  and  negro,  by  three  hun- 
dred years  of  contact  with  what  is  called  civiliza- 
tion, had  failed  to  be  in  the  least  elevated  there- 
by. Nothing  worth  speaking  of  had  been  done 
by  the  English  toward  Christianizing  natives ; 
while  the  habits  and  influence  of  American  sea- 
captains  and  traders  were,  for  the  most  part, 
grossly  demoralizing. 

In  1849,  three  Moravians  commenced  this,  the 
most  recent  but  one  of  their  missions,  establishing 
themselves  at  Bluefields;  and  the  same  year  the 
first  convert,  a  negro  woman,  received  baptism. 
In  1855,  Princess  Matilda,  half-sister  of  the  king, 
so  called,  was  baptized  —  the  first-fruits  of  an  in- 
gathering from  the  Indians,  though  her  life  after- 
wards did  not  honor  the  profession  she  had  made. 
"Put  not  your  trust  in  princes."  As  might  be 
11 


162  MOBAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.IV. 

expected,  opposition  has  been  met  with  from  the 
Roman  Catholics  of  Nicaragua ;  and  the  Nicara- 
guan  Government,  by  laying  excessive  import 
duties,  aimed  to  break  up  the  mission  (1865). 
Yet  the  Brethren  have  succeeded  in  establishing 
a  number  of  stations  and  a  number  of  schools. 
To  catch  the  attention,  to  awaken  an  interest 
in  things  spiritual,  has  required  great  patience. 
Look  in,  for  a  moment,  upon  a  service  conducted 
at  an  Indian  dwelling.  You  shall  see  people 
lying  listless  in  their  hammocks  or  on  the 
ground ;  some  one  at  the  door  with  a  long  stick 
is  hardly  able  to  keep  off  dogs  and  cattle,  but 
does  succeed  by  his  noise  in  drowning  the 
preacher's  voice.  Yet  faith  has  triumphed.  At 
Bluefields,  polygamy,  once  universal,  is  now  un- 
known. Instead  of  naked  savages,  men  and 
women  are  seen  suitably  clothed;  and  a  collec- 
tion, amounting  to  ninety-five  dollars,  was  re- 
cently (1881)  taken  up  among  them  in  aid  of 
South-African  sufferers  by  the  Basutq  war.  Not 
long  ago  (1876),  two  Germans  arranged  a  dance, 
but  found  to  their  surprise  that  only  a  few  of 
the  lowest  people  attended  it.  Displeased  at 
this,  they  wished  to  arrange  a  ball,  as  they 
called  it,  and,  going  to  a  native  member  of  the 
Moravian  church,  offered  him  fifty  dollars  for 
the  loan  of  his  house  to  dance  in  for  one  night. 
He  answered  that  he  belonged  to  the  church, 
and  did  not  approve  of  it.  "  But,"  said  these 


LRCT.IVO  THE  MISSION.  163 

gentlemen,  "  the  Lord  Jesus  himself  danced  when 
he  was  on  earth."  Hereupon  the  brother  placed 
a  Bible  on  the  table,  and  asked  them  to  show 
him  the  place  where  that  was  written.  The 
Germans  took  their  hats  and  left. 

The  schools  established  have  accomplished 
something ;  but  the  use  of  the  English  lan- 
guage is  inadequate,  and  inappropriate  for  effect- 
ing the  elevation  of  the  people.  At  the  present 
time  there  has  come  to  be  a  fashion,  almost  a 
mania,  throughout  the  missionary  world,  for  the 
use  of  our  mother  tongue,  which  often  occasions 
an  unproductive  outlay  of  time,  strength  and 
funds.  At  Ephrata,  in  this  Central-American 
mission,  an  Indian,  who  had  been  brought  up 
at  the  Mission  House,  was  lately  (1881)  found 
able  to  read  the  Bible  fluently  in  English,  while 
at  the  same  time  he  confessed  that  he  knew 
nothing  at  all  of  the  meaning  of  the  words. 
The  Moravians  in  Mosquitia  have  happily  be- 
come convinced  that  they  must  master  the 
vernacular,  though  a  very  difficult  language,  and 
they  have  already  prepared  a  small  grammar 
and  vocabulary.  In  1862,  a  man  and  woman 
were  baptized  at  Ephrata.  In  1862,  .the  first  man 
of  the  Wulwa  tribe  received  the  same  ordinance 
at  Magdala  —  a  tribe  living  along  rivers  some- 
what in  the  interior ;  and  within  the  last  twelve- 
month (1880-81)  there  has  been  a  religious 
awakening  at  that  station,  the  Holy  Spirit  being 


164  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LBCT.IV. 

poured  out  on  Indians,  Creoles  and  Spaniards ; 
and,  in  the  course  of  one  month,  fifty  converts 
were  added  to  the  church.  During  the  present 
year  (1881),  there  has  been  a  work  of  special 
grace  at  Bluefields  also,  from  which  place  a 
missionary  wrote  in  August :  "  Last  week,  one 
hundred  persons  joined  the  church,  and  at  our 
evening  meetings  the  crowd  is  such  that  we 
can  not  kneel  to  pray."  The  number  of  stations 
is  seven ;  '  of  missionaries,  fourteen ;  and  of  mem- 
bers, one  thousand  one  hundred  and  forty-six. 

Two  lectures  have  now  been  devoted  to  a 
survey  of  Moravian  mission-work  on  the  islands 
and  the  mainland  that  border  the  Caribbean  Sea. 
Not  as  mere  tourists,  but  as  Christian  visitors, 
have  we  made  this  survey;  and,  before  leav- 
ing the  region,  we  will  cast  a  rapid  glance  at 
the  shores  of  that  sea,  a  body  of  water  twice  the 
size  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  In  aspect  and  in  some 
of  the  physical  conditions,  the  surroundings  of 
this  little  ocean  are  nowhere  surpassed  on  the 
face  of  the  globe  for  beauty,  or  for  a  teeming 
and  magnificent  vegetation.  The  climate  is,  for 
the  tropics,  mild  and  agreeable,  oceanic  rather  than 
continental,  with  an  entire  exemption  from  the 
hot,  parching  winds  to  which  India  and  the  Medi- 

1  One  of  these  is  Ramah  —  repeating  the  name  of  a  station 
in  Greenland,  and  of  another  in  Labrador.  But  in  Palestine 
there  were  six  or  seven  places  having  substantially  the  same 
designation  —  Ramah. 


LSCT.IV.J  CARIBBEAN   SEA.  165 

terranean  are  subject.  The  winter,  especially  of 
the  West  India  Islands  —  I  speak  from  some 
measure  of  personal  acquaintance  —  cannot  be 
excelled  anywhere  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  The 
atmosphere  is  balm}',  and  at  night  intensely 
serene ;  the  moonlight  so  brilliant  as  to  enable 
one  to  read  the  finest  print,  and  Venus  uniformly 
casts  a  shadow. 

"  Beautiful  islands  !  where  the  green 
Which  Nature  wears  was  never  seen 
'  Neath  zone  of  Europe ;  where  the  hue 
Of  sea  and  heaven  is  such  a  blue 
As  England  dreams  not ;  where  the  night 
Is  all  irradiate  with  the  light 
Of  starlike  moons,  which,  hung  on  high, 
Breathe  and  quiYer  in  the  sky^" 

Yet  here  is  the  home  of  tempests,  the  focus 
of  devastating  hurricanes,  of  which  more  than 
one  hundred  and  thirty  have  been  distinctly 
recorded  since  the  archipelago  began  to  have  a 
place  in  historical  records.  Earthquakes  are  not 
uncommon ;  volcanic  mountains  and  active  volca- 
noes are  found.  The  whole  chain,  stretching  from 
Florida  round  to  the  South-American  coast,  has 
the  appearance  of  a  submerged  mountain  system, 
whose  peaks  alone  indicate  the  line  of  the  old 
connection,  like  the  masts  of  a  sunken  fleet  once 
drawn  up  in  a  half-moon ;  the  Great  Antilles 
answering  to  the  heavy  line-of-battle  ships,  and 
the  Caribbee  Islands  to  smaller  men-of-war  and 
transports. 


166  MOKAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.IV. 

Nature  is  here  in  sympathy  with  man,  and  is 
the  reflex  of  history.  "The  whole  creation 
groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  together  until 
now."  No  quarter  of  the  world  shows  a  darker 
history  than  this.  The  Caribbean  Sea  was  the 
peculiar  field  of  the  buccaneers.  Bluefields  and 
Belize,  the  capital  towns  of  two  Central-Ameri- 
can states,  were  named  for  two  famous  pirates. 
Numerous  lagoons,  bays  and  inlets,  clothed  to 
the  water's  edge  with  the  dark-green  mangrove, 
furnished  those  daring  marauders  with  ready 
places  of  concealment ;  and,  for  a  century  and 
a  half,  the  villanies  of  piracy  made  these  fair 
regions  the  abode  of  terror.  But,  in  the  more 
normal  course  of  human  society,  we  behold 
Columbus,  after  twenty  years  of  neglect  and 
ridicule,  having  set  foot  on  San  Salvador  and 
opened  a  new  hemisphere  to  the  astonished  na- 
tions of  Europe,  ordered  home  in  chains,  the 
victim  of  envy  and  intrigue  —  all  but  his  chains 
being  taken  from  him ;  so  that  he  who  gave 
Spain  another  world  had  neither  safety  in  it, 
nor  yet  a  cottage  for  himself  or  his  wretched 
family.1 

Looking  at  the  original  inhabitants,  we  see 
Caribs,  strongly  built,  fierce,  warlike,  a  terror  to 
milder  tribes,  a  sort  of  tropical  Vikings ;  far  more 
numerous,  the  gentle  and  peaceable  Arawaks; 

1  Letter  of  Columbus  to  King  Ferdinand,  1504. 


LBCT.IV.J  MORAL  DEVASTATION.  167 

yet,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  wretched  relics 
still  remaining  on  four  of  the  smaller  islands,  all 
were  expelled  or  exterminated  long  ago.  The 
inhabitants  of  Hispaniola,  computed  to  have  been 
a  million,  were  soon  reduced  to  sixty  thousand. 
Natives  of  the  Lucayan  Islands,  to  the  number 
of  twelve  thousand,  early  became  extinct  through 
hard  service  under  ground  or  by  famine.  Never 
was  a  more  tantalizing  or  diabolical  cruelty  than 
that  practiced  by  Spaniards,  who,  finding  that 
these  simple  islanders  entertained  the  idea  that 
departed  souls  go  to  blissful  regions  in  the  South, 
persuaded  them  that  they  had  come  from  that 
paradise,  and  would  take  the  Lucayans  where 
they  should  see  their  friends  and  enjoy  all  man- 
ner of  delights.  Thus  seduced,  they  accom- 
panied the  Spaniards  to  Hispaniola  and  Cuba, 
where  they  found  themselves  victims  of  the  cruel1 
est  slavery,  from  which  suicide  was  their  only 
relief.  Perfidy  the  most  monstrous,  brutality 
without  parallel,  characterized  the  Castilians. 
Here  first,  in  capturing  natives,  they  employed 
mastiffs,  trained  to  mangle  their  bodies  if  resist- 
ance was  offered.  They,  not  the  natives,  de- 
served to  be  called  savages.  This  New  World 
seemed  to  them  a  paradise ;  they  made  it  a 
slaughter-house,  and  one  generation  sufficed  very 
nearly  to  accomplish  the  work  of  extermination. 
At  first  the  credulous  natives  took  the  Spaniards 
to  be  more  than  men ;  they  soon  found  them  not 


168  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.IV. 

less  than  devils.  "  Holy  Mother  Church "  had 
no  protest  to  utter.  The  tender-hearted  Las 
Casas  was  at  first  only  sneered  at  or  brow- 
beaten.1 In  her  impious,  proselyting  bigotry, 
Rome  could  sanction  the  forcing  of  captives  into 
the  water,  and,  after  baptism  had  been  admin- 
istered to  them,  the  cutting  of  their  throats  to 
prevent  what  was  called  apostasy.  There  were 
Spaniards  who,  in  their  frenzied  fanaticism,  vowed 
to  hang  or  burn  thirteen  natives  every  morn- 
ing, in  honor  of  the  Saviour  and  his  twelve 
apostles.  "  O  Liberty  !  "  cried  Madame  Roland 
on  reaching  the  scaffold,  "  what  crimes  are  per- 
petrated in  thy  name  !  "  "  O  Christianity ! "  we 
cry,  "  what  crimes  are  committed  in  thy  name  ! " 
South  and  Central  America,  as  well  as  regions 
farther  to  the  north  and  to  the  south,  supplied 
a  quota  for  the  awful  holocaust  which  Spanish 
invaders  offered  to  their  god  Mammon.2 

As  if  it  were  not  enough  to  enslave  and  exter- 
minate aboriginal  races,  Africa  must  be  subsi- 
dized by  the  same  relentless  greed.  Hence  a 


1  The  Bishop  of  Burgos,  when  informed  by  him  how  seven 
thousand  Indian  children  had  perished  in  three  months  for 
want  of  parents  who  had  been  sent  to  the  mines,  said,  laugh- 
ingly :    "  Look  you !    what  a  droll  fool !    What  is  this  to  me, 
and  what  is  it  to  the  king  ?  " 

2  Altogether  about  sixteen  millions  of  natives,  Robertson 
in  his  History  of  America  asserts,  were  destroyed  during  the 
wars  which  they  waged  in  this  New  World. 


LBCT.IV.]  SLAVE  TEADE.  169 

bonus  upon  war  and  cruelty  between  the  tribes 
of  that  continent  to  supply  the  West  India  and 
South- American  market;  hence  the  horrors  of 
the  middle  passage  —  a  space  only  ten  or  fifteen 
inches  wide  being  allowed  to  each  person.  The 
poor  creatures  were  stowed  in  like  so  many  bales 
of  goods,  and  fifteen  per  cent  sometimes  died 
on  the  voyage.  To  know  the  slave  trade,  one 
must  see  the  handcuffs  and  leg-bolts  for  linking 
human  beings  two  and  two ;  the  thumb-screws  for 
torturing  them;  and  the  instrument  for  wrench- 
ing open  the  mouths  of  such  as  refused  to  eat. 
At  the  time  Herrnhut  was  founded,  two  hundred 
English  vessels  were  engaged  in  the  slave  trade ; 
and,  in  the  course  of  a  century  (1680-1786),  two 
million  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  negroes 
were  imported  into  the  British  West  Indies. 

For  wretched  Africans  kidnapped,  treated  thus, 
and  forced  into  servitude,  could  there  be  any 
hope  ?  Has  any  improvement  been  effected  ? 
Long  ago,  one  not  a  missionary,  a  planter,  gave 
answer:  "Formerly  we  could  hardly  procure 
ropes  enough  on  Monday  for  punishing  those 
slaves  who  had  committed  crimes  on  Sunday, 
twenty,  thirty  and  even  more  being  hung;  but, 
since  the  gospel  has  been  preached  to  them, 
scarcely  two  are  hung  in  a  whole  year,  and 
these,  for  the  most  part,  are  strange  negroes, 
who  have  not  been  long  on  the  island."  Not 
till  the  third  decade  of  the  present  century  could 


170  MOEAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.IV. 

a  beginning  be  made  in  the  work  of  negro  educa- 
tion, even  on  the  English  islands,  nor  till  the 
year  1841  on  the  Danish  islands.  For  more  than 
a  hundred  years,  the  Brethren  had  not  been 
allowed  to  open  a  school,  that  the  slave  might 
learn  to  read  the  Word  of  God ;  nor  in  other 
ways  had  they  more  than  the  slightest  oppor- 
tunity to  instruct  children  and  youths. 

When  it  is  considered  in  what  a  savage  state 
the  slave  trade  delivered  to  the  West-Indian  and 
South-American  planter  its  victims,  worshipers 
of  fetiches  and  believers  in  obeahism,  how  very 
unfavorable  for  Christian  access  was  their  condi- 
tion of  hard  bondage,  it  must  be  conceded  that 
a  most  noble  achievement  was  effected  by  the 
United  Brethren.  They  inaugurated  a  change 
in  the  moral  aspect  of  the  region.  Other  Chris- 
tian bodies,  following  their  example,  have  also 
done  nobly.  Even  for  the  sake  of  their  own 
personal  safety,  planters  might  well  have  borne 
the  whole  expense  of  these  missions.  "  What 
security  have  you,"  said  the  Moravian  Bishop 
Joannes  de  Watteville,  son-in-law  of  Zinzendorf, 
to  the  Governor  of  one  of  these  islands,  more 
than  a  hundred  years  ago  —  "  what  security  have 
you  against  the  slaves  rising  and  destroying  you 
all?"  The  Governor  took  him  to  a  window, 
and,  directing  his  attention  to  some  Moravian 
mission-stations,  answered :  "  This  is  our  secu- 
rity. Negroes  who  are  converted  will  never  rise 


LKCT.  iv.]  AMELIORATION.  171 

in  rebellion  ;  and  their  number  is  so  great  that 
the  others  could  never  conspire  without  their 
knowledge,  and  they  would  inform  us." 

It  has  been  the  lot  of  these  humble  evangelists 
to  be  little  known  or  appreciated  by  either  the 
literary '  or  the  commercial  world.  But  the  abject 
man,  African  and  Indian,  of  dark  skin  and  of 
darkened  understanding,  has  felt  the  quickening 
power  of  Christian  love  ;  he  has  found  there  is 
a  white  man  not  too  proud  to  enter  his  hut, 
to  sit  down  by  his  side,  tell  him  what  Jesus 
Christ  has  done,  what  a  heaven  there  is  for  the 
believing  barbarian  no  less  than  for  the  believing 
European,  and  it  has  filled  him  with  wonder ; 
it  has  made  him  first  a  man,  then  a  new  man 
in  Christ  Jesus.  The  savage  can  be  saved. 


1  Mr.  Anthony  Trollope  remarks  in  his  West  Indies  and 
Spanish  Main :  "  At  thirty  a  man  devotes  himself  to  proselyt- 
ing ;  and,  if  the  people  be  not  proselytized  when  he  reaches  forty, 
he  retires  in  disgust."  From  his  flippant  and  unphilanthropic 
estimate  of  the  negroes  in  those  islands,  Mr.  Trollope,  like  too 
many  others,  appears  to  have  taken  no  pains  to  learn  what 
Christian  men  have  done  in  their  behalf,  and,  least  of  all,  to 
acquaint  himself  with  the  persevering  labors  of  Moravian 
Brethren. 


LECTURE  V. 


MISSION  TO  GREENLAND. 


MISSION   TO   GREENLAND. 


THE  course  of  Divine  Providence  is  a  chain, 
of  which  some  events  seem  to  be  insignificant. 
In  the  movements  of  men,  incidental  results  are 
often  more  important  than  the  leading  object. 
A  shepherd  boy,  sent  with  supplies  to  his  breth- 
ren in  camp,  becomes  at  once  the  champion,  and 
afterwards  the  monarch,  of  Israel.  John  Mil- 
ton, traveling  in  Italy,  witnesses  a  rude  drama 
culled  A  Mystery,  and  Paradise  Lost  is  the  result. 
Count  Zinzendorf  visits  Copenhagen  to  attend 
the  coronation  of  King  Christian  VI,  and  the 
two  earliest  foreign  missions  of  the  United  Breth- 
ren come  into  being. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  mission  which 
first  gave  the  gospel  to  West-Indian  slaves  took 
its  rise ;  we  are  now  to  learn  how  Moravians 
came  to  engage,  the  very  next  year,  in  Arctic 
evangelization.  Zinzendorf,  a  personal  friend  of 
the  new  Danish  monarch,  was  not  attracted  to 
Copenhagen  by  a  desire  to  witness  the  pageantry 
of  a  state  occasion ;  he  was  intent  on  serving 
the  King  of  kings.  The  God  of  missions,  in 
leading  him  to  that  court  at  that  time,  had  large 
thoughts  concerning  him.  While  there  (1731), 

(176) 


176  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.V. 

he  sees  two  Eskimos,  who  were  baptized  by 
Egede,  the  Danish  missionary;  he  hears  much 
about  that  remarkable  man's  labors,  and  learns 
with  grief  that  the  mission  to  Greenland  was 
to  be  given  up.  Returning  to  Herrnhut,  he 
speaks  of  that  country  and  its  perishing  hea- 
then. A  simultaneous  impression  is  made,  not 
only  upon  Dober  and  Leupold,  who  offer  them- 
selves for  Christian  service  among  the  negroes 
of  St.  Thomas,  as  has  already  been  narrated,  but 
upon  two  others.  One  of  them,  Matthew  Stach, 
tells  the  story  thus  :  "  I  was  then  at  work  with 
Frederick  Bonisch  on  the  burying-ground  called 
the  Hutberg.  He  was  the  first  person  I  made 
acquainted  with  what  passed  in  my  mind;  and 
I  found  that  he  had  been  actuated,  on  the  same 
occasion,  with  the  same  desire  to  promote  the 
salvation  of  the  heathen.  .  .  .  As  we  were  both 
of  one  mind,  and  confidently  believed  that  our 
Saviour's  promise  would  be  verified  to  us,  'If 
two  of  you  shall  agree  on  earth,'  etc.,  therefore 
we  retired  to  the  wood  just  at  hand,  and  kneeled 
down  before  him,  and  begged  him  to  clear  up 
our  minds  in  this  important  affair,  and  to  lead 
us  in  the  right  way.  Thereupon  our  hearts  were 
filled  with  uncommon  joy,  and  we  omitted  no 
longer  to  lay  our  desire  before  the  congregation 
in  writing,  with  perfect  resignation  as  to  which 
tribe  of  heathen  our  allotment  should  be,  though 
we  felt  the  strongest  leaning  to  the  Greenlanders." 


LBCT.V]  OFFER   AND  ACCEPTANCE.  177 

Some  time  elapsed  before  any  reply  was  made 
to  this  offer.  Such  an  undertaking  then  required 
the  test  of  much  deliberation  and  earnest  sup- 
plication. In  the  mean  time,  Frederick  Bonisch 
went  on  a  long  journey ;  and  Christian  David, 
the  leader  of  emigrants  from  Moravia,  who  felled 
the  first  tree  at  Herrnhut,  conceived  a  desire  to 
accompany  this  pioneer  party  to  Greenland,  and 
see  them  settled  there,  as  Nitschmann  accom- 
panied Dober  to  St.  Thomas.  Matthew  Stach, 
speaking  of  himself  and  his  cousin  Christian 
Stach,  who  was  to  be  associated  with  him,  says : 
'*  We  had  nothing  but  the  clothing  on  our  backs. 
We  had  been  used  to  make  shift  with  a  little, 
and  did  not  trouble  our  heads  how  we  should 
get  to  Greenland  or  live  there."  It  was  an  im- 
pulse from  Heaven  that  moved  those  young  men. 
They  belonged  to  a  good  stock;  the  fathers  of 
both  had  been  severely  punished  for  the  flight 
of  their  sons  from  Moravia,  the  land  of  religious 
darkness  and  tyranny ;  had  even  been  put  in 
irons  and  sentenced  to  hard  labor.  Among  the 
various  and  rare  mineral  treasures  of  their  native 
land,  these  Brethren  must  be  accounted  as  two 
of  her  choice  opals. 

The  three  men,  Christian  David  and  the  cous- 
ins Stach,1  set  out  for  Denmark  January  11, 
1733.  At  Copenhagen  they  found  great  uncer- 

1  Often  spoken  of  by  mistake  as  if  they  were  brothers. 
12 


178  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.  v. 

tainty  whether  the  Danish  mission  of  Egede, 
which  had  been  established  about  ten  years  be- 
fore, would  be  renewed ;  they  found  that  their 
own  expedition  was  by  many  deemed  romantic 
and  ill-timed;  and,  supposing  they  could  reach 
the  country,  how  were  they  to  subsist  there? 
If  not  murdered,  they  must  starve !  Persisting 
in  their  purpose,  they  made  application  to  the 
first  lord  of  the  bedchamber,  Count  von  Pless, 
who  at  once  stated  many  difficulties.  No  wonder 
their  plan  seemed  chimerical !  If  the  well-edu- 
cated, indefatigable  Egede,  in  circumstances  com- 
paratively favorable,  had  accomplished  so  little, 
what  could  be  expected  from  these  uneducated, 
unordained  artisans?  Lay  missionaries  were  at 
that  time  a  novelty.  But  Count  von  Pless  saw 
they  were  men  of  faith ;  and,  remembering  that,  in 
all  ages  God  has  often  chosen  the  "weak  things 
of  the  world,"  he  commended  them  to  the  king, 
who  at  length  resolved  to  renew  communication 
with  Greenland,  and  encourage  endeavors  to 
Christianize  the  heathen  there.  With  his  own 
hand,  he  wrote  to  Egede,  commending  these 
humble  brethren  to  his  kind  regard.  Count  von 
Pless  became  a  good  deal  impressed  by  the  ear- 
nest simplicity  of  the  men,  and,  unsolicited, 
made  them  a  present  toward  the  expense  of  their 
voyage  and  early  settlement.  "  But  how  do  you 
propose  to  procure  food  in  Greenland?"  he  in- 
quires. "By  the  labor  of  our  hands,"  they  an- 


MCT.V.]  THE  COUNTRY.  179 

swer,  "  and  God's  blessing.  We  will  build  us 
a  house  and  cultivate  the  land"  —  not  knowing 
that  they  would  find  little  besides  rock  and  ice. 
The  Count  objects,  "There  is  no  wood  to  build 
with."  They  answer,  "Then  we  will  dig  in  the 
earth  and  lodge  there."  "No,"  said  the  Count, 
"you  shall  not  be  driven  to  that  shift.  Take 
wood  with  you  and  build  a  house ;  accept  these 
fifty  dollars  for  the  purpose."  Other  distin- 
guished persons  added  to  their  stock. 

In  the  month  of  April  (1733),  they  embarked 
on  his  Majesty's  ship  Caritas,  and,  after  a  voy- 
age of  six  weeks,  entered  Ball's  River,  almost 
the  only  river  in  Greenland.  But  to  what  have 
they  come?  The  peculiar  home  of  the  fox  and 
the  white  bear,  and  of  sea-fowls  so  numerous  as 
at  times  to  darken  the  air.  With  few  other 
exceptions,  there  is  little  land-life.  Almost  the 
only  relief  is  that  no  venomous  reptiles  are  found. 
The  exuberance  of  terrestrial  life  and  the  magni- 
tude of  forms  which  characterize  the  tropics  are 
here  transferred  to  the  water.  The  elephant  and 
rhinoceros  seem  dwarfish  beside  that  species  of 
whale  which  sometimes  attains  a  length  of  one 
hundred  feet.  Nillson,  in  his  work  on  the  Scan- 
dinavian fauna,1  estimates  the  full-grown  Balaena 
mysticetus  at  one  hundred  tons,  or  two  hundred 


1  Skandinavisk   Fauna,  Vol.  I,  623.     Quoted  by  Dr.  Robert 
Brown  in  Manual  of  Instructions,  etc.,  317. 


MORAVIAN    MISSIONS.  [LKCT.V. 

thousand  pounds,  equal  to  eighty-eight  elephants. 
From  medusian  animalcules  in  astonishing  abun- 
dance, there  is  a  gradation  upwards  to  the  walrus 
and  the  narwhal;  each  tribe  of  larger  animals 
feeding  upon  one  beneath,  and  all  finding  Polar 
pasture-ground  immensely  productive.  From  that 
great  Arctic  aquarium  there  come  shoals  of  her- 
ring in  dense  masses,  to  supply  food  for  nations 
in  more  hospitable  regions.  What  Scandinavia 
once  was  to  middle  and  lower  Europe,  such 
continually  is  that  Polar  sea  to  southern  waters, 
the  officina  gentium. 

We  look  more  particularly  at  Greenland.  Shall 
it  be  reckoned  to  America  ?  Shall  we  call  it  an 
island,  or  a  continent  ?  It  is  four  times  the  size 
of  the  present  German  Empire,  a  broad  country, 
with  only  a  narrow  belt,  chiefly  on  the  western 
coast,  accessible  to  man.  We  may  term  it  the 
Polar  Continent  without  an  interior — any  interior 
for  the  purposes  of  human  existence.  Indeed,  if 
we  understand  by  that  term  land  or  habitable 
foothold,  it  has  no  interior  at  all.  Not  "  from 
Greenland's  icy  mountains "  do  "  they  call  us  to 
deliver."  That  is  a  poetic  myth;  there  is  no 
living  creature  on  those  hights  to  call.  Ground, 
supposing  it  to  exist,  is  no  more  visible,  and  is 
less  accessible,  than  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  So 
far  as  exploration  is  concerned,  we  know  no  more 
of  inner  Greenland  than  was  known  when  Eric 
the  Red  first  set  eyes  upon  the  shore  a  thousand 


LKCT.  v.]  ICEBERGS.  181 

years  ago.  All  we  can  reasonably  infer  is  that 
there  exists  one  vast,  dreary  glacier  expanse, 
devoid  of  beast,  bird,  or  insect — a  Sahara  of  ice 
instead  of  sand,  where  not  even  a  moss  or  lichen 
appears.  An  awful  silence  reigns,  broken  only 
when  the  stormy  wind  arises.  It  must  have  been 
the  same  geographical  irony  which  first  called 
this  Polar  world  Greenland  that,  at  a  later  date, 
gave  to  one  Arctic  point  the  illusive  name  of 
Cape  Comfort.  Much  more  appropriately  did 
John  Davis,  an  English  explorer  in  the  sixteenth 
century  (1585),  christen  it  The  Land  of  Desola- 
tion. 

The  conjecture  seems  to  be  reasonable  that  the 
country  is  a  vast  aggregate  of  rocky  islands, 
cemented  into  unity  by  a  mass  of  perpetual  ice  — 
the  frozen  Antilles  of  the  North.  The  western 
coast,  bold  and  rocky  like  that  of  Norway,  is 
indented  with  numberless  gulfs  or  fiords,  and 
these  are  mere  havens  of  icebergs.  Falling  snows 
accumulate  on  the  higher  portions  of  the  univer- 
sal ice-field  ;  these  consolidate,  and,  by  their  mass 
pressing  upon  the  glaciers,  help  to  force  those 
congealed  rivers  down  the  valleys  that  open  into 
the  firths,  where  the  huge  extremities  are  broken 
off,  not  by  gravitation,  but  by  the  buoyant  action 
of  the  sea  underneath.  The  mass  groans  and 
creaks ;  then  follows  a  crash,  with  a  roar  like  the 
discharge  of  artillery,  attended  by  a  tremendous 
agitation  of  waves,  and  an  iceberg  is  launched. 


182  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLECT.T. 

Inlets  extending  sometimes  a  hundred  miles  are 
studded  with  icebergs,  and  form  the  highways  by 
which  those  frozen  mountains  —  which  equal,  in- 
cluding what  is  beneath  as  well  as  above  the 
surface,  the  highest  mountains  in  England  —  float 
out  from  the  glaciers  when  these  prolongations 
of  the  great  Mer  de  Glace  reach  the  sea.  The 
mighty  masses,  sometimes  almost  regular  crystals, 
sometimes  in  fantastic  shapes,  three  fourths  under 
water,  find  their  way  into  Baffin's  Bay,  and  south- 
ward into  the  Atlantic,  imparting  a  chill  to  our 
seaboard  till  near  midsummer.  Are  we  impressed 
by  the  great  ice-rivers  of  Switzerland  ?  Yet  how 
dwarfish  are  they  beside  Humboldt's  glacier, 
which  has  a  facial  breadth  of  sixty  miles  !  What 
terrestrial  phenomenon  can  be  more  grand  than 
such  a  glacial  covering  of  the  country,  in  some 
places  probably  thousands  of  feet  thick,  moving 
on  slowly,  century  after  century,  and  rolling 
frozen  cataracts  into  the  sea! 

Here  landed  our  missionaries.  Hans  Egede 
received  them  cordially.1  From  an  early  date 
the  congregation  at  Herrnhut  have  annually  com- 
piled a  little  book  containing  two  texts  of  Holy 


1  Not  long  afterwards,  partly  through  the  fault  of  Nitsch- 
mann,  who  was  not  so  discreet  and  well-poised  as  most  Mora- 
vians, the  relations  between  the  Danish  and  Moravian  mission- 
aries became  less  pleasant.  The  views  and  methods  of  the 
two  were  dissimilar,  and  to  the  present  day  there  is  not  all  that 
cordial  intercourse  between  them  which  could  be  wished. 


LKCT.V.]  THE  ESKIMOS.  183 

Scripture  —  one  from  the  Old  Testament,  known 
as  "  The  Daily  Word ; "  the  other  from  the  New 
Testament,  denominated  "The  Doctrinal  Text." 
They  are  used  at  family  worship,  and  furnish 
topics  of  remark  at  the  public  meeting.  The  lit- 
tle volume  for  the  present  year  (1882)  is  the  one 
hundred  and  fifty-second  in  the  series.  A  sug- 
gestive connection  has  often  been  found  by  the 
Moravians  between  the  word  of  the  day  and  some 
notable  occurrence  on  that  day.  The  text  for 
the  day  of  the  Brethren's  embarkation,  April  10, 
was  (Hebrews  xi :  1),  "  Faith  is  the  substance  of 
things  hoped  for  —  the  evidence  of  things  not 
seen." 

"  We  view  Him,  whom  no  eye  can  see, 
With  faith's  perspective  steadfastly." 

The  whole  undertaking  was  clearly  one  of 
faith.  The  story  of  their  early  hardships  is 
truly  moving,  but  courage  and  hope  did  not 
fail.  "Let  but  the  time  for  the  heathen  come," 
they  wrote,  "  and  the  darkness  in  Greenland  must 
give  way  to  the  light ;  the  frigid  zone  itself  must 
kindle  into  a  flame,  and  the  ice-cold  hearts  of 
the  people  must  burn  and  melt." 

But  to  what  a  people  have  they  come !  We 
refer  .to  the  inhabitants  as  they  were  when  regu- 
lar intercourse  began  to  be  resumed  between 
Europe  and  "  The  Land  of  Desolation,"  early 
in  the  last  century.  The  Eskimos  are  distinct- 
ively the  Polar  people,  the  most  northern  people 


184  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [«CT.  y. 

on  our  globe,  occupying  the  Arctic  shores  from 
Greenland  westward  across  the  continent  of 
North  America,  and,  indeed,  including  the  Na- 
mollos,  extending  four  hundred  miles  along  the 
Asiatic  coast  of  Behring's  Strait.  No  other  ab- 
original people  are  more  widely  scattered.  Be- 
tween the  eastern  and  western  extremes  of  these 
hyperboreans  there  is  a  reach  of  not  less  than 
five  thousand  miles.  The  Eskimos  are  a  shore 
people,  seldom  found  at  a  distance  of  more  than 
twenty  or  thirty  miles  from  the  sea,  or  from 
streams  near  their  outlet.  Along  the  American 
Arctic  shores  they  have  •  a  monopoly,  save  that, 
toward  the  western  American  frontier,  two  In- 
dian tribes,  the  Kennayan  and  the  Ugalenze, 
have  advanced  to  the  sea  in  order  to  enjoy  fish- 
ing; while  on  the  eastern  frontier  are  a  few 
European  settlers,  as  the  English  at  various  posts 
of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  in  Labrador,  and 
the  Danes  in  Greenland.  Of  the  latter,  there 
are  not  now  usually  more  than  two  or  three 
hundred.  That  vast  empire  of  frost  belongs  to 
this  people,  who  have  a  preference  for  the  inhos- 
pitably* and  by  choice  are  denizens  of  desolation. 
In  spite  of  their  wide  dispersion  and  the  small 
amount  of  present  intercourse  between  remote  sec- 
tions, much  uniformity  exists.  Their  geograph- 
ical situation  secures  to  them  comparative  isola- 
tion, and  they  have  the  usual  conceited  ignorance 
of  tribes  and  of  individuals  so  situated.  Innuit 


LBCT.T.]  THE  ESKIMOS.  185 

—  the  plural  of  innu,  man,  "the  people,"  the  men 
par  excellence  —  is  the  title  which  they  arro- 
gate to  themselves.1  Such  assumption  is  by  no 
means  peculiar  to  Arctic  regions.  Every  Arawak 
Indian  in  Guiana,  where  we  have  so  recently 
been,  names  his  tribe  and  language  as  those  of 
the  Lokono,  which  signifies  "the  people."  The 
Caribs  of  that  quarter  apply  to  themselves  the 
term  Caringa,  which  also  denotes  "  the  people ; " 
and,  in  the  language  of  their  neighbors  the  Acca- 
woios,  the  word  Kapohu,  by  which  the  different 
branches  of  their  race  are  designated,  means 
"  the  people." 2  This  is  a  species  of  vanity  com- 
mon to  many  rude  and  less  intelligent  tribes ; 
nor  is  the  spirit  which  promotes  it  a  monopoly 
of  uncivilized  countries  or  of  modern  times. 
The  patriarch  of  Uz  met  with  it :  "  No  doubt 
ye  are  the  people,  and  wisdom  will  die  with 
you."  An  obscure  tribe  which  Sir  John  Ross 
found,  in  latitude  77°  on  the  upper  coast  of 
Greenland,  supposed  themselves  to  be  the  only 
inhabitants  in  the  world.  When  Dr.  Kane  first 
visited  the  little  tribe  living  on  Smith's  Sound, 
they  were  greatly  surprised  to  find  there  were 
any  other  human  beings  outside  of  their  abode. 

1  The  French  name  Esquimau,  now  beginning  to  be  displaced 
by  Eskimo,  is  a  corruption  of  an  Abanaki  word,  which  signifies 
"  those  who  eat  raw  flesh;"  Charlevoix  says,  "mangeur  de  viande 
crue." 

2  Brett's  Indian  Tribes  of  Guiana,  97,  98,  255. 


186  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.V. 

The  attachment  of  most  people  to  their  birth- 
place is  in  the  inverse  ratio  of  its  real  attrac- 
tiveness. What  Bishop  Spangenberg  said  of  the 
Indians  of  North  America  holds  true  of  these 
heathen  Eskimos :  "  It  is  harder  for  a  native  to 
quit  his  country  than  for  a  king  to  leave  his 
kingdom." 

This  fringe  of  sparsely  distributed  Eskimos 
along  the  Polar  coast  constitutes  a  race  somewhat 
by  itself  ethnographically  also.  There  is  a  sharp 
distinction  between  them  and  the  inland  tribes 
of  our  continent ;  and,  when  the  two  come  in 
contact,  mutual  hostilities  arise.  The  origin  and 
relationships  of  the  Eskimos  are  obscure.  They 
seem,  however,  to  form  a  connecting  link  be- 
tween northern  Mongolian  Asiatics  and  the  North- 
American  Indians.  Their  language  is  extremely 
unlike  European  languages,  save  that  it  has  a 
structural  affinity  with  the  Basque,  and  in  a  simi- 
lar way  resembles  the  Finn  or  Hungarian  group. 
It  is  copious  in  grammatical  forms,  its  particles 
and  inflections  more  numerous  than  the  Greek, 
but  the  agglutinative  verb  absorbs  other  parts  of 
speech.  The  noun  and  verb  are  almost  the  only 
parts  of  speech,  inflection  supplying  the  place  of 
prepositions.  No  prefixes  are  used ;  but  suffixes 
are  plentiful,  and  these  particles,  though  destitute 
of  meaning  themselves,  yet,  being  added  to  the  main 
word,  produce  a  modification  of  sense.  The  verb 
can  include  a  pronoun  both  as  subject  and  object, 


LBCT.YO  EACE   AND  LANGUAGE.  187 

and  hence  constitute  even  a  complex  sentence. 
Owing  to  this  poly  synthetic  feature,  the  words 
sometimes  come  to  have  great  length.  Here  is 
one  as  a  specimen,  taken  without  search  from 
a  Greenlander's  letter :  Tipcitsugluartusinnaungil- 
anga.  Here  is  another  specimen :  Savigeksiniari- 
artokasuaromaryotittogog,  which  one  word  signifies, 
"  He  says  you  will  also  go  away  quickly  in  like 
manner,  and  buy  a  pretty  knife."  Of  numerals 
there  are  only  one  to  five,  answering  to  the  fin- 
gers on  the  hand.  Ten  is  two  hands ;  twice  ten 
—  referring  to  fingers  and  toes  —  is  "  the  man 
finished."  The  number  twenty-four,  for  instance, 
is  four  on  the  second  man ;  eighty  is  "  four  men 
finished."  There  is  a  dual  as  well  as  singular 
and  plural  number.  Considering  the  extent  of 
their  dispersion,  and  the  absence  of  intercourse 
between  different  portions  of  the  people,  it  is 
remarkable  that,  with  only  dialectic  differences, 
their  language  should  remain  the  same  through 
such  a  vast  stretch  of  territory  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific. 

In  person,  Eskimos  are  not  tall;  neither  are 
they  dwarfish,  as  formerly  reported,  but  stout, 
with  large  heads,  small  necks,  hands  and  feet, 
and  muscles  not  well  developed.  The  face,  flat, 
with  high  cheek-bones,  is  seldom  washed,  except 
in  summer,  and  is  ordinarily  so  smeared  with 
soot  and  clotted  train-oil  as  not  to  show  that 
the  real  complexion  is  fair,  or  at  any  rate  not 


188  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.V. 

darker  than  that  of  the  Portuguese.  In  personal 
and  domestic  habits,  filth  to  the  last  degree 
characterizes  them  —  their  clothes  dripping  with 
grease  and  swarming  with  vermin ;  and  the  sti- 
fling atmosphere  of  their  habitations,  especially 
during  the  winter,  is  one  which  no  foreigner 
with  delicate  olfactories  could  endure.1  They  eat 
most  voraciously;  ten  pounds  of  flesh,  besides 
other  food,  are  sometimes  consumed  by  one  per- 
son in  the  course  of  a  day.  A  man  will  lie  on 
his  back,  and  the  wife  feed  him  till  he  can  no 
longer  move.  Cooking  is  not  an  indispensable 
preparation  of  their  seal-flesh,  the  chief  article  of 
food.  Like  other  savages,  they  alternate  between 
pasting  and  famishing  ;  unlike  most  other  savages, 
they  habitually  consume  raw  flesh  and  fat.  Find- 
ing a  dead  seal,  they  will  sometimes  rush  upon  it, 
though  decay  has  so  far  advanced  as  to  generate 
poison,  of  which  they  die.  This  animal,  abun- 
dant and  easily  caught,  supplies  apparel  for  the 
person,  covering  for  the  boat,  a  bladder  to  float 
the  harpoon,  oil  for  the  lamp  which  lights  and 
warms  the  house,  besides  other  useful  articles, 
and  hence  is  much  more  to  the  Eskimos  than 
rice  is  to  the  Chinese,  or  the  potato  to  the  Irish. 
Men  and  women  dress  very  much  alike,  always 


1  Two  Quaker  gentlemen,  truthful  and  guarded  as  to  their 
language,  who  visited  Greenland  in  1863,  declared,  "  No  poor 
man  in  England  would  have  so  poor  a  place  for  his  pigs." 


LKCT.  v.]  PERSON  AND   HABITS.  189 

in  skins,  and  their  clothes  are  well  made.  The 
fires  kindled  are  chiefly  for  cooking,  but  of  this 
there  is  comparatively  little.  It  remains  a  singu- 
lar fact  that,  in  the  coldest  climate  inhabited 
by  man,  fire  should  be  less  used  than  anywhere 
else  in  the  world,  equatorial  regions  perhaps 
excepted.1 

Like  the  Sandwich-Islanders  originally,  their 
salutation  consisted  in  rubbing  noses;  and,  like 
those  islanders,  they  at  first  mistook  European 
ships  for  huge  birds.  The  kayak,  a  shuttle- 
shaped  boat,  eighteen  feet  long,  twenty  inches 
in  the  widest  part,  which  requires  for  its  con- 
struction about  as  many  skins  as  a  hunter  can 
secure  in  one  season  —  a  characteristic  affair, 
and  without  parallel  among  any  other  people  in 
its  structure  and  in  the  dexterity  of  its  manage- 
ment—  is  occupied  by  one  man  only,  and  is  used 
in  hunting.  The  Eskimos  employ  the  dog  for 
draught  —  an  advance  toward  civilization  found 
among  no  other  aboriginal  American  people.  The 
nearest  approach  was  by  the  Incas  of  Peru,  who 
used  the  llamas  for  bearing  burdens,  though  not 
for  draught.  Life  is  a  struggle  for  mere  exist- 
ence. Accumulation  of  property  or  knowledge 
seems  out  of  the  question,  everything  being 
held  in  common,  except  what  may  be  deemed 
indispensable  to  each;  namely,  clothing,  a  boat, 

1  Bancroft's  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States,  I,  58. 


190  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.T. 

and  in  summer  a  tent.  Toward  setting  up  a 
new  family,  nothing  besides  a  tent  and  boat  is 
absolutely  required,  and  no  other  goods  are 
hereditable. 

The  women  eat  apart  from  the  men.  Girls 
are  of  small  account;  boys  may  make  hunters 
and  support  their  parents.  In  disposition  the 
Greenlanders  are  not  fierce,  but  mild ;  they  are 
envious,  ungrateful  and  phlegmatic,  as  if  their 
constitution  had  been  touched  with  frost.  A 
stolid  indifference  to  the  perils  and  sufferings 
of  others  may  often  be  witnessed.  People  stand- 
ing on  the  shore,  and  seeing  a  boat  upset  at 
sea,  would  look  on  with  entire  unconcern  if  the 
occupant  was  not  a  personal  friend.  They  would 
make  merry  at  his  struggle  with  the  waves,  and, 
sooner  than  put  off  for  a  rescue,  would  allow 
him  to  perish  before  their  eyes.  Yet,  in  respect 
to  mechanical  ingenuity,  more  brain-power  is 
shown  by  them  than  by  most  other  savage  na- 
tions who  are  more  favorably  situated.  They 
possess  a  remarkably  accurate  knowledge  of  to- 
pography. Youths  taken  to  Denmark  learn  trades 
as  readily  as  the  Danes.  Unlike  North- American 
Indians,  they  are  not  averse  to  labor  —  at  least, 
much  less  averse  than  they.  Eskimos  have  great 
power  of  endurance  and  a  cool  presence  of  mind. 
Certain  games  of  agility  and  strength  are  prac- 
ticed, ball-playing  the  favorite  one.  Singing  and 
drum-playing,  with  dancing  and  declamation,  may 


LKT.V.]  PERSON  AND  HABITS.  191 

be  met  with.  Among  the  converts,  there  has 
occasionally  appeared  a  man  with  considerable 
sharpness  of  intellect  and  power  of  reasoning. 
One  of  them,  speculating  on  the  doctrine  of  final 
causes  in  a  manner  not  unworthy  of  Archdeacon 
Paley,  said  he  often  reflected  that  a  kayak,  with 
its  tackle,  does  not  grow  itself  into  being,  but 
requires  to  be  shaped  by  skill  and  labor ;  a  bird 
is  made  with  greater  skill  than  a  kayak ;  still 
no  man  can  make  a  bird.  "I  bethought  me," 
said  the  Eskimo,  "that  he  proceeded  from  his 
parents,  and  they  from  their  parents.  But 
there  must  have  been  some  first  parents; 
whence  did  they  come?  Certainly,  I  concluded, 
there  must  be  a  Being  able  to  make  them  all,  and 
all  other  things  —  a  Being  infinitely  more  mighty 
and  knowing  than  the  wisest  man." '  Civil  gov- 
ernment in  any  definite  form  —  ruler,  magistrates 
or  courts  of  justice  —  hardly  exists.  The  Eskimo 
language  —  happy  circumstance  !  —  has  no  words 
for  scolding ;  people  are  expected  to  live  in  amity. 
Nor  have  they  any  profane  words.  They  never 
make  war  upon  one  another,  and  avoid  giving 
offence.  Annoyance  with  offenders  is  indicated 
by  silence,  the  aim  being  to  bring  shame  upon 
them.  Quarrels  of  all  kinds  are  settled  by  a 


1  A  heathen  Eskimo,  when  asked,  "Who  made  the  world?  " 
replied :  "  We  don't  know,  but  it  must  have  been  some  very 
rich  man." 


192  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.V. 

song-duel.  Any  one  owing  another  a  grudge 
composes  a  song  about  it,  and  sends  him  word 
when  he  will  sing  it  against  him.  Cheering  by 
the  assembly,  or  dissent,  indicates  at  once  the 
judgment  and  the  punishment ;  for  the  Green- 
lander  dreads  nothing  so  much  as  to  be  despised 
and  laughed  at  by  his  countrymen.  The  people 
have  a  store  of  traditions  and  popular  tales. 

On  the  score  of  immorality  and  superstitions, 
the  Eskimos  are  no  worse  than  the  average  of 
barbarous  nations.  They  believe  in  spirits,  good 
and  evil ;  and  in  the  chief  of  spirits,  Torngarsuck, 
who  lives  in  a  happy  subterranean  mansion.  The 
chief  female  divinity  is  a  spirit  of  evil,  the  mis- 
chievous Proserpine  of  the  North.  They  con- 
ceive of  the  earth,  with  the  sea  supported  by  it, 
as  resting  on  pillars  and  covering  an  under-world 
accessible  by  various  entrances  from  the  sea  and 
from  the  mountain  clefts.  Above  the  earth  is 
an  upper  world ;  and,  after  death,  souls  go  up 
or  down,  the  latter  being  much  preferable  be- 
cause warm  and  amply  supplied  with  food.  Cold 
and  famine  reign  in  the  upper  world,  where  the 
inhabitants  are  playing  at  ball  with  a  walrus's 
head,  which  occasions  the  aurora  borealis.1  Their 
ideas  of  the  future  are  dim  and  fluctuating,  espe- 
cially as  regards  retribution ;  and  yet  they  have 
a  horror  of  annihilation.  The  chief  character 

1  Rink's  Tales  and  Traditions  of  the  Eskimos. 


LBCT.V.]  RELIGION.  193 

among  them  is  thfe  Angekok  —  sorcerer,  magician, 
counselor  and  physician.  He  corresponds  to  the 
Northern-Asiatic  Shaman,  or  the  Indian  medicine- 
man, and  prepares  for  his  magic  feats  by  pro- 
longed solitude  and  fasting.  They  believe  in 
ghosts,  the  reappearance  of  spirits  after  death ; 
also  in  witchcraft,  which  is  invoked  for  sinister 
purposes.  The  one  supposed  to  be  possessed  of 
this  disreputable  power  is  regarded  as  able  to 
leave  the  body,  and  approach  -the  object  of  ill- 
intent,  invisible  to  any  one  except  the  clairvoyant. 
This  class  of  persons  does  not  seem  to  differ  greatly 
from  what  the  Scotch  imagine  their  "  canny  folk  " 
to  be.  Such,  in  the  main,  are  the  Eskimos,  who 
in  very  small  numbers  continue  heathen  today; 
such  were  the  Eskimos  of  Greenland  when  the 
first  missionaries  approached  them. 

We  picture  to  ourselves  the  Moravian  Brethren 
simple-minded  men,  endeavoring  to  get  access  to 
this  people  —  a  people  who  did  not  desire  their 
presence,  and  who  seemed  determined  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  them,  except  in  the  way  of 
begging  or  stealing.  The  language  must  be 
mastered,  but  these  new-comers  are  unlearned. 
They  have  never  seen  a  grammar.  Egede  loans 
them  his  remarks  on  the  Greenland  language, 
and  bids  his  children  assist  them  ;  but  they  must 
first  learn  the  Danish  to  understand  their  in- 
structors. The  Eskimo  language,  with  its  copi- 
ous vocabulary,  its  complex  structure,  so  unlike 
13 


194  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LBCT.V. 

their  own,  seems  an  insolvable  puzzle.  Natives 
steal  the  manuscripts  which  had  been  written 
out  with  wearisome  pains,  and,  instead  of  enter- 
ing into  conversation,  ask  if  they  are  not  going 
away  soon.  The  roving  habits  of  the  people,  in 
summer-time,  increase  the  difficulty  of  access  to 
them.  But  the  Brethren  plod  on ;  and  after 
more  than  a  year  of  discouraging  experience, 
they  enter  into  a  solemn  covenant :  "  We  will 
with  diligence  continue  the  study  of  the  language 
in  love,  patience  and  hope." 

After  a  destructive  contagion  which  seemed 
almost  to  depopulate  the  country,1  we  might  sup- 
pose these  missionaries  would  see  reasons  for 
retiring.  But  no ;  they  had  been  accustomed  to 
meditate  upon  a  verse  engraved  on  copperplate 
at  Herrnhut :  "  He  calleth  those  things  which  be 
not,  as  though  they  were."  The  advice  to  aban- 
don Greenland  they  met  with  this  trusting  reply  : 
"  God's  ways  are  not  man's  ways  ;  he  that  called 
us  hither  can  still  accomplish  his  aim  by  us." 
They  firmly  determine  to  wait  for  years,  if  only 
to  save  one  soul.  "All  men,"  they  wrote,  "in- 
deed look  upon  us  as  fools,  and  those  more  espe- 
cially who  have  been  longest  in  this  country, 
and  are  best  acquainted  with  the  character  of  its 


1  Later,  in  1754,  there  was  a  prevailing  sickness,  of  which 
sixty  converts  died;  and  in  1782  another,  which  carried  off  465 
converts. 


USCT.V.]         ACQUIRING  THE  VERNACULAR.  195 

inhabitants.  ...  But  he,  our  Jesus,  whose  heart 
is  filled  with  tenderness  towards  us  and  the  poor 
heathen,  knows  all  our  ways  ;  yea,  he  knew  them 
before  we  were  born.  We  are  willing  to  venture 
011  him  our  lives  and  all  we  have." 

During  the  second  year  (1734)  of  this  Mora- 
vian mission,  two  additional  Brethren  went  out 
to  establish  a  new  station.  One  of  them  was 
Frederick  Bonisch,  who  at  the  outset  had  offered 
himself  with  Matthew  Stach ; r  the  other  was  John 
Beck,  whose  grandfather,  crippled  by  torture, 
had  died  young,  and  who,  for  conscience'  sake, 
had  himself  been  manacled  and  nearly  starved 
within  a  Roman  Catholic  dungeon.  They  toil  on 
under  the  greatest  embarrassments,  especially  in 
acquiring  the  language.  Occasionally  a  native 
calls  upon  them,  and  stops,  it  may  be  for  a  night, 
but  always  with  some  selfish  purpose,  to  obtain 
shelter,  food,  needles,  or  something  else.  The 
Eskimos,  thinking  that  they  confer  a  great  favor 
upon  the  missionaries,  for  which  pay  ought  to  be 
given,  declare  bluntly  that,  if  the  missionaries  will 
not  give  them  any  more  stock-fish,  they  will  listen 
no  longer.  All  manner  of  mockery  and  scorn  is 
encountered.  The  natives  mimic  the  reading, 
singing  and  praying ;  perform  droll  antics,  accorn- 


1  Matthew  Stach  afterward  came  to  this  country,  and,  dying 
in  1787,  was  buried  at  the  Moravian  settlement  of  Bethabara 
in  North  Carolina. 


196  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.V. 

panied  with  drumming  and  hideous  howling; 
jeer  at  their  poverty  and  taunt  them  for  their 
ignorance :  "  Fine  fellows  to  be  our  teachers ! 
We  know  very  well  that  you  yourselves  are 
ignorant  and  must  learn  your  lessons  of  others." 
They  used  to  consider  themselves  superior  to 
Europeans  in  good  breeding ;  and,  when  they 
saw  a  modest  stranger,  their  highest  compliment 
was,  "He  begins  to  be  a  Greenlander."  The 
heart  of  the  savage  is  much  like  the  heart  of 
the  civilized  man.  In  every  community,  one  may 
meet  with  petulant  cavils  or  diabolical  humor, 
such  as  the  Moravians  met  in  Greenland.  "  Show 
us  the  God  whom  you  describe,"  said  the  natives, 
"  then  we  will  believe  in  him  and  serve  him. 
.  .  .  Our  soul  is  healthy  already,  and  nothing  is 
wanting  if  we  had  but  a  sound  body  and  enough 
to  eat.  You  are  another  sort  of  folk  than  we. 
In  your  country,  people  may  perhaps  have  dis- 
eased souls,  and  indeed  we  see  proofs  enough,  in 
those  who  come  here,  that  they  are  good  for 
nothing;  they  may  stand  in  need  of  a  Saviour 
and  of  a  physician  for  the  soul." 

At  one  time,  the  missionaries  heard  not  a  word 
from  friends  at  Herrnhut  for  two  years,  and 
occasionally  they  were  upon  the  point  of  starva- 
tion. Raw  seaweed  was  devoured.  The  Eski- 
mos would  not  sell  them  even  seal's  flesh — a 
delicacy  compared  with  the  tallow  candles  they 
were  now  and  then  compelled  to  eat.  "  Your 


UKJT.V.]  FIRST  CONVERSION.  197 

countrymen,"  they  would  often  say,  "must  be 
worthless  people,  since  they  send  you  nothing, 
and  you  will  be  fools  if  you  stay  here."  Still  the 
persevering  men  formed  resolutions  like  these  : 
"  We  will  never  forget  that  in  a  confidence 
resting  upon  God  our  Saviour,  in  whom  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth  shall  be  blessed,  we  came 
hither.  .  .  .  We  will  not  be  anxious  and  say, 
'What  shall  we  eat,  and  what  shall  we  drink, 
and  wherewithal  shall  we  be  clothed?'  but  cast 
our  care  on  Him  who  feeds  the  sparrows,  and 
clothes  the  flowers  of  the  field."  At  length, 
toward  the  close  of  1735,  a  native  with  whom 
they  had  conversed  came  quite  a  distance,  and, 
by  what  he  brought,  was  the  means  of  saving 
their  lives.  The  next  year,  a  gentleman  in  Hol- 
land, without  solicitation,  sent  them  supplies  by 
a  Dutch  vessel. 

The  fifth  year  of  toil  and  disappointment  went 
by ;  but  the  year  1738  comes,  and  patient  wait- 
ing receives  an  earnest  of  its  reward.  At  the 
end  of  May  the  missionaries  wrote:  "Courage, 
dear  brethren,  and  believe  with  us  that  our  Lord 
will  yet  at  last  do  glorious  things  in  Greenland. 
Meanwhile  we  will  not  intermit  our  prayers  and 
supplications  for  the  salvation  of  these  poor 
people,  that  the  power  of  our  Redeemer's  blood 
may  be  apparent  in  their  hearts."  Fervent 
petitions  were  answered.  John  Beck  was  one 
day  copying  out,  in  a  fair  hand,  a  translation  of 


198  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.V. 

the  Gospels,  when  a  company  of  native  South- 
landers,  passing  by  New  Herrnhut,  the  Breth- 
ren's first  station  on  Ball's  River,  call  and  wish 
to  know  what  is  in  that  book.  The  missionary 
reads  to  them.  He  tells  them  that  the  Son  of 
God  became  man  that  he  might  redeem  them 
by  his  sufferings  and  death;  that  they  must 
believe  if  they  would  be  saved.  He  enlarges  on 
the  subject,  at  the  same  time  reading  the  account 
of  our  Saviour's  agony  in  the  garden.  One  of 
the  listening  savages,  Kaiarnak,  steps  up  to  the 
table  and  says,  with  much  earnestness:  "How 
was  that?  Tell  me  that  once  more,  for  I  too 
would  fain  be  saved."  The  hour  has  come  for 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  awaken  something  responsive 
in  an  Eskimo  soul,  the  first  well-defined  instance 
in  Polar  regions. 

Christ's  sufferings  and  death,  the  innocent  for 
the  guilty,  the  God-man  in  mere  man's  place, 
is  the  central  truth  of  the  gospel,  wherein  lies 
the  hiding  of  its  power.  That  supreme  expres- 
sion of  divine  love  moves  when  nothing  else 
will;  therein  is  a  Heaven-appointed  adaptation. 
Its  effectiveness  appeared  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost ;  and,  from  that  day  to  the  present,  nothing 
has  been  found  with  a  tithe  of  the  same  spiritual 
force.  Arctic  temperature  neither  promoted  nor 
hindered  access  to  the  heart  of  Kaiarnak.  A 
missionary,  traversing  the  large  business  street 
of  a  city  in  Southern  India,  once  spoke  to  a 


LECT.V.]  POWEE   OF  THE  CROSS.  199 

native  concerning  the  forgiveness  of  sin  by  Jesus 
Christ.  "  What  is  that  you  say  ?  "  exclaimed  the 
Hindu.  "  Tell  me  that  again  ;  explain  that  to  me ; 
I  want  to  hear  that  repeated."1  This  is  not  a 
matter  of  continental  or  insular  residence.  When 
Mr.  Nott  was  reading  the  third  chapter  of  John's 
gospel,  to  South  Sea  Islanders,  at  the  sixteenth 
verse  he  was  interrupted  by  one  of  them  :  "  What 
words  were  those  you  read?  What  sounds  were 
those  I  heard  ?  Let  me  hear  those  words  again !  " 
The  missionary  read  once  more  :  "  For  God  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only-begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  The  man  rose 
and  demanded,  "  Is  that  true  ?  Can  that  be  true  ? 
God  love  the  world  when  the  world  not  love 
him  ?  God  so  love  the  world  as  to  give  his  Son  to 
die  ?  Can  tha£  be  true  ?  "  The  verse  was  read  yet 
again,  and  the  wondering  native  burst  into  tears. 
Nor  is  this  a  question  of  race.  An  athletic  Kafir, 
hearing  of  "wrath  to  come,"  was  filled  with  an- 
guish. The  Moravian  missionary  spoke  to  him 
of  our  crucified  Saviour.  Trembling,  he  said: 
"Sir,  I  am  old  and  stupid;  tell  me  that  again." 
And,  when  told  again,  tears  rolled  down  his  sable 
face.  Has  that  event  less  power  on  the  heart  of 
woman  ?  Tah-nek,  of  the  Cherokee  nation,  was 
suffering  extreme  bodily  pain.  The  missionary 

1  London  Missionary  Magazine,  1849,  p.  68. 


200  MOEAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.V. 

told  her  of  Jesus,  his  love,  his  sufferings,  his 
power  to  save.1  Her  dislike  gave  way  to  deep 
interest,  and  she  said,  "  Tell  it  again."  She  for- 
got her  own  pains,  and,  after  listening  further, 
said,  weeping :  "  Tell  it  again,  for  I  too  must  be 
saved."  *  What  can  so  rouse,  so  captivate,  as  this 
truth  of  the  cross  ?  For  renovating  men  and 
women,  there  is  no  theology  like  the  theology  of 
redemption.  It  can  penetrate  alike  the  savage 
and  the  man  of  culture ;  in  the  palace  or  the 
hovel ;  in  arctic  or  tropical  regions.  Let  explor- 
ing expeditions  keep  up  their  search,  if  they  will, 
for  a  new  route  to  the  opulent  East ;  there  is  no 
"  northwest  passage  "  to  Paradise. 

Kaiarnak  became  an  undoubted  Christian  con- 
vert. He  labored  with  his  companions,  and  they 
too  became  interested.  Before  the  month  was 
out,  three  large  families  of  Southlanders  pitched 
their  tents  near  the  missionaries,  that  they  might 
hear  the  news  of  redemption.  The  next  year 
(1739),  it  became  increasingly  evident  that  a  way 
was  preparing  in  the  hearts  of  sundry  Eskimos. 


1  "There  is  over  you  the  great  burden  of  sin,"  said  one  of 
our  Madura  catechists  to  an  old  woman  carrying  a  heavy  load 
on  her  head ;  "  you  must   go  to  Jesus,  the   bearer  of  sin-bur- 
dens.   He  will  take  away  your  sins,  and  you  may  enter  heaven." 
"  Tell  me  that  again,"  said  she,  and  with  many  tears  went  on 
her  way,  repeating:  "I  am  a  sinner;  Jesus,  take  my  sin-burden 
and  love  me ! " 

2  Washb urn's  Reminiscences  of  the  Indians. 


LKCT.V.]  SPIRITUAL  COINCIDENCES.  201 

Kaiarnak,  receiving  the  name  of  Samuel,  was 
baptized,  as  well  as  his  wife,  son  and  daughter. 
Soon  after,  a  band  of  murderers  from  the  north 
killed  a  brother-in-law  of  Samuel,  and  threatened 
his  life  too.  Taking  his  family,  he  retreated  to 
the  south ;  but,  wherever  he  went,  spoke  to  his 
countrymen  of  the  things  of  God.  After  a  year, 
he  returned,  bringing  his  brother  and  family,  for 
whose  conversion  he  had  been  laboring.  But  his 
useful  life  was  short.  The  year  following  (1741), 
he  said  to  the  friends  weeping  around  him : 
"  Don't  be  grieved  about  me ;  have  you  not  often 
heard  that  believers,  when  they  die,  go  to  our 
Saviour,  and  partake  of  his  eternal  joy?  You 
know  that  I  am  the  first  of  you  that  was  con- 
verted by  our  Saviour ;  and  now  it  is  his  will  that 
I  should  be  the  first  to  go  to  him." 

Nothing  in  the  spiritual  world,  any  more  than 
in  the  physical  world,  is  wholly  isolated.  Our 
earth  is  a  great  magnet,  and  there  is  a  diffu- 
sive electric  element  pervading  nature.  In  regard 
to  its  channels  and  laws,  we  know  but  little. 
We  have,  however,  learned  that  magnetic  storms 
are  connected  with  the  Aurora  Borealis ;  that 
there  are  occasions  when  all  the  magnets  of  the 
world  are  simultaneously  affected.  Religious  move- 
ments are  sometimes  similarly  coincident.  Without 
the  slightest  intercommunication,  revivals  of  relig- 
ion have  begun  at  the  same  time  in  different  coun- 
tries, or  on  land  and  on  shipboard.  June  2,  1738, 


202  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.  v. 

was  the  day  when  Kaiarnak  put  the  question : 
"  What  is  that  ?  Tell  me  that  again."  The  same 
year,  missionaries  on  St.  Thomas  were  imprisoned  ; 
yet  the  Word  of  God  was  not  bound,  for  the  negro 
congregation  increased  daily,  and  "  the  grace  of 
God  prevailed  mightily  among  them."  In  the 
spring  of  that  year,  Whitefield,  on  his  first  voy- 
age to  this  country,  preaches  the  crucified  Saviour 
to  an  irreligious  company ;  bad  books  and  cards 
are  thrown  overboard  ;  an  army  officer  and  other 
passengers  are  converted.  The  same  year,  Presi- 
dent Edwards's  Narrative  of  Surprising  Conver- 
sions was  republished  in  Boston  ;  and  that,  too, 
is  the  period  when  its  author,  in  whom  the  work 
of  sanctification  was  far  advanced,  had  marvelous 
experiences.  David  Brainerd  also  was  in  the 
midst  of  soul-sorrows  before  coming  to  a  dis- 
covery of  free  grace  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  date 
now  in  mind,  June  2,  1738,  was  less  than  a  fort- 
night after  Charles  Wesley  prayed  (May  21)  as 
never  before,  and  found  peace.  Three  days  later, 
John  Wesley,  who  for  ten  years  had  been  groping 
and  struggling,  but  has  now,  through  the  fidelity 
of  Peter  Bohler,  a  Moravian,  been  convinced  of 
his  "want  of  that  faith  whereby  alone  we  are 
saved,"  is  able  for  the  first  time  to  record  his 
assurance  of  salvation.  Two  weeks  more  and  he 
is  on  his  way  to  Herrnhut,  where  he  receives 
many  suggestions  and  delightful  impressions.  "I 
would  gladly,"  says  he,  "  have  spent  my  life  here ; 


LKCT.V.]  SPIRITUAL  EXPERIENCE.  203 

but,  my  Master  calling  me  to  labor  in  other  parts 
of  his  vineyard,  I  was  constrained  to  take  my 
leave  of  this  happy  place."  Was  not  the  year 
1738  a  year  of  quick  though  unconscious  sym- 
pathy between  different  parts  of  the  Christian 
world  ?  Was  there  not  a  real  though  inexplicable 
connection  between  that  borealis  flash  in  Green- 
land and  the  "  cloven  tongues  of  fire "  which 
sat  on  many  heads  in  different  parts  of  Chris- 
tendom? 

'  From  this  time,  Christianity  as  a  living  power 
was  evidently  gaining  foothold  at  New  Herrnhut, 
the  first  Moravian  station  in  Greenland.  If  it  be 
asked,  What  evidence  has  that  gross  and  dark- 
minded  people  given  of  spiritual  life  ?  we  reply  — 
(1.)  They  experience  a  sense  of  sin  —  one  good 
evidence,  whether  among  savage  or  civilized  peo- 
ples. "  No,"  said  Christiana,  when  a  heathen  fe- 
male complimented  her  for  not  being  so  very  bad, 
"  no,  that  is  not  the  reason ;  the  Saviour  has  not 
chosen  me  because  I  am  good,  but  because  I  am 
a  wretched,  poor,  corrupted  sinner.-  He  receives 
none  but  poor  sinners  who  cannot  be  satisfied 
without  him."  (2.)  They  learn  where  to  look 
for  help  and  hope.  An  old  man,  long  full  of 
animosity  to  the  Word  of  God,  comes  begging 
to  be  told  more  about  the  Crucified  One,  and 
then  exclaims,  "  O  Jesus,  help  me,  poor  creature ! " 
A  native  assistant  said :  "  It  is  with  us  as  when 
a  thick  mist  covers  the  land,  which  hinders  us 


204  MORAVIAN    MISSIONS.  [LECT.V. 

from  seeing  any  object  distinctly.  But,  when 
the  fog  disperses,  we  get  sight  of  one  corner  of 
the  land  after  another ;  and  when  the  sun  breaks 
forth  we  see  everything  clear  and  bright.  Thus 
it  is  with  our  hearts.  While  we  remain  at  a 
distance  from  our  Saviour,  we  are  dark  and 
ignorant  of  ourselves;  but  the  nearer  the  ap- 
proaches we  make  to  him,  the  more  light  we 
obtain  in  our  hearts,  and  thus  we  rightly  learn 
to  discover  all  good  in  him  and  all  evil  in  our- 
selves." Yet  another  pens  the  following  prayer 
—  and  to  precomposed  prayers,  so  simple,  so 
childlike,  who  will  object? — "My  dear  Saviour, 
my  name  is  Nathaniel.  I  will  open  my  whole 
heart  to  thee  in  writing,  in  thy  presence.  I  am 
deficient  in  everything.  I  find  that  I  have  not 
yet  devoted  my  whole  heart  unto  thee ;  and  yet 
thou  hast  died  for  me,  Jesus  Christ.  I  wish  I 
was  so  that  thou  couldst  rejoice  over  me.  Dear 
Saviour,  I  would  willingly  live  so  as  to  please 
thee." 

When  we  remember  the  coarseness,  the  stupid- 
ity, the  groveling  habits,  of  this  people,  in  their 
heathen  state,  is  it  not  a  notable  result  that 
their  sensibilities  have  been  educated  through 
the  power  of  divine  truth  and  grace  ?  From  the 
outset  of  that  awakening,  a  century  and  a  half 
ago,  apathy  gave  place  to  tenderness  on  the  part 
of  converts.  When  the  Spirit  of  God  had  once 
touched  their  hearts,  their  eyes  would  often 


LECT.V.]  MORAL   EARNESTNESS.  205 

moisten  with  tears.  Sometimes  this  became  very- 
marked  when  the  dying  love  of  our  Saviour  was 
presented ;  indeed,  it  was  not  unusual  for  im- 
bruted  Greenlanders  to  weep  under  such  pre- 
sentation. The  voice  of  prayer  is  heard,  and  in 
ejaculations  like  these  :  "  My  Saviour,  I  know 
that  all  things  are  possible  to  thee.  Now,  as 
thou  hast  bid  us  ask  what  we  are  in  want  of, 
therefore  I  pray  thee  hear  me  even  at  present." 
"  Oh,  that  great  Rescuer ! "  exclaims  another. 
Such  thoughts  and  aspirations,  when  once  faith 
has  been  exercised,  bring  joyful  assurance;  and 
we  are  not  surprised  to  hear  Agnes  testify 
(1752) :  "  I  am  enabled  to  rejoice  daily  since 
I  know  that  I  have  a  Saviour,  and  that  I  have 
now  nothing  else  to  crave  while  I  am  on  earth. 
Oh,  had  I  not  him  nor  felt  him,  I  should  be 
like  a  dead  creature  !  " 

A  certain  moral  earnestness,  early  developed, 
like  the  tenderness  of  feeling  shown,  is  all  the 
more  noteworthy  in  the  midst  of  this  race,  con- 
stitutionally so  stolid,  so  dull  of  apprehension  as 
to  the  difference  between  right  and  wrong,  and 
as  to  the  imperative  claims  of  religion.  It  cer- 
tainly was  unusual  when  youths,  in  spite  of 
parental  promises,  entreaties  or  threats,  clung  to 
the  missionaries,  out  of  a  desire  to  be  taught 
the  way  of  salvation ;  and  when  young  women 
could  show  a  chivalrous  devotion  to  their  reli- 
gious teachers.  It  was  a  strange  phenomenon 


206  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.V. 

that  a  heathen  Eskimo  should  sit  up  nearly 
the  whole  night  to  talk  with  a  convert,  who 
says  he  was  now  as  "  eager  after  hearing  what 
is  good,  as  the  birds  are  after  fishes  which  they 
swallow  whole  for  eagerness."  The  first  con- 
verts soon  become  Christian  helpers,1  and  gender 
efficient  aid  in  obtaining  access  to  heathen  friends. 
Look  at  one  of  them ;  his  name  is  Daniel.  "  Do 
not  ye  think,  then"  —  thus  the  man  appeals  to 
his  benighted  countrymen  —  "that  our  Saviour 
endured  inexpressible  pain,  when  in  his  deadly 
anguish  he  sweat  blood,  was  scourged  all  over 
his  body,  had  his  hands  and  feet  pierced  with 
nails,  and  his  side  pierced  with  a  spear?  But 
why  do  I  say  this  to  you?  For  this  reason,  to 
induce  you  once  seriously  to  consider  it,  and, 
for  our  Saviour's  great  love,  to  yield  up  your 
hearts  to  him,  with  every  bad  thing,  to  the  end 
that  he  may  free  you  from  them  by  his  blood, 
and  bestow  upon  you  a  happy  life.  I  can  tell 
you  that  great  happiness  is  to  be  found  in  him." 

1  The  Brethren  write :  "  In  the  mean  time,  Samuel  fre- 
quently kept  hours  for  prayer  at  home  with  the  Greenlanders. 
Neither  had  Sarah  [his  wife]  been  inactive  among  her  sex  and 
the  children.  But,  especially  if  there  are  any  laid  hold  of  by 
grace,  she  enters  into  frequent  conversation  with  them  about 
the  state  of  their  hearts;  directs  them  with  all  their  misery, 
according  to  her  own  experience,  to  the  Lamb  of  God  that 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world;  and,  in  short,  seeks  all 
occasions  to  gain  something  with  the  talents  entrusted  to 
her." 


LECT.V.]  GRATIFYING  TOKENS.  207 

The  Danish  agents  of  trade,  astonished  at  his 
course,  call  him  "  the  man  of  God."  Wherever 
he  stops  for  a  night,  he  takes  off  his  cap,  folds 
his  hands,  sings  a  few  verses,  or  prays,  and  then 
talks  to  the  heathen,  unabashed  at  the  presence 
of  Europeans ;  and  all  this  in  a  way  so  unaffected 
that  his  auditors  weep,  and  then,  late  into  the 
night,  talk  about  his  discourses.  Benjamin,  a 
native  assistant,  was  also  a  peculiarly  devoted 
man,  who  in  his  old  age  would  visit  out-dwellers, 
when  he  had  to  drag  himself  to  the  shore  leaning 
on  two  sticks,  and  requiring  help  to  get  into  his 
kayak. 

Heathen  Eskimos  used  to  get  rid  of  the  dis- 
abled and  the  dependent  by  letting  them  perish, 
or  in  some  other  way  even  worse  than  that. 
Such  barbarism  has  ceased,  and  even  a  "poor 
man's  box  "  is  now  hardly  needed.  The  natives, 
naturally  covetous  and  much  more  ready  to 
receive  than  to  give,  yet  in  the  autumn  make 
a  contribution  of  train-oil  for  church  purposes, 
and  are  in  the  habit  of  aiding  their  more  indigent 
neighbors.  When  (1757)  they  learned  how  the 
Indian  congregation  at  Gnadenhiitten,  in  Penn- 
sylvania, had  been  broken  up,  and  those  who 
escaped  had  lost  their  all,  "I  have  a  fine  rein- 
deer-skin which  I  will  give,"  said  one  ;  another, 
"  I  have  a  pair  of  new  reindeer-boots  which  I 
will  send;"  "And  I,"  said  a  third,  "will  send 
them  a  seal,  that  they  may  have  something  tc 
eat  and  to  burn." 


208  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.T. 

It  has  been  noticed  that,  early  in  the  course 
of  this  mission,  children  came  under  the  power 
of  Christianity.  Their  hearts  were  drawn  out 
towards  the  missionaries,  and  they  would  bear 
such  testimony  concerning  the  Saviour  as  aston- 
ished the  heathen.  Occasionally  the  young  were 
so  wrought  upon  as  to  leave  father  and  mother, 
brothers  and  sisters,  in  order  to  enjoy  Chris- 
tian instruction.  They  might  sometimes  be  seen 
sitting  together,  singing  Christian  verses  and 
talking  about  them.  Is  it  easy  to  conceive  of 
anything  more  beautiful  than  such  children, 
amidst  the  dreary  waste  of  Greenland,  capti- 
vated by  the  story  of  Jesus,  and  lifting  up  their 
"  Hosanna  in  the  highest  ? "  The  service  of 
sacred  song  has  held  an  important  place  in 
the  Moravian  work  among  the  Greenlanders,  as 
elsewhere.  Paul  Gerhardt's  famous  hymn,  "O 
Head,  so  full  of  bruises," x  became  one  of  the 
early  favorites;  so  did  various  lyric  composi- 
tions of  Zinzendorf  and  of  his  son,  Christian 
Renatus.  No  one  of  these  served  a  more  im- 
portant purpose  than  the  hymn, 

"Jesus,  thy  blood  and  righteousness 
My  beauty  are,  my  glorious  dress." 

Not  without  interest,  though  with  sadness,  do 
we  notice  the  outbreak  of  a  delusion  in  1853. 
It  reveals  a  liability  common  to  the  rude  and 

1  0  Haupt,  voll  Blut  und  Wunden. 


"CT.  TO  FANATICISM.  209 

the  more  civilized  —  a  liability  of  spiritual  fanat- 
icism, and  it  supplies  an  evidence  of  the  unity 
of  the  human  race.  Matthew,  a  young  man  of 
excellent  character,  natural  gifts  and  religious 
attainments,  to  whom  his  countrymen  gave  the 
name  "Great  Sage,"  after  the  death  of  his 
mother,  awoke  his  father,  brothers  and  sisters, 
one  night,  and  continued  in  prayer  with  them 
till  morning.  He  professed  to  have  seen  the 
Lord,  and  to  have  been  assured  by  him  that 
the  end  of  the  world  had  come.  Some  of  the 
congregation  at  Friedrichsthal  and  others  joined 
him.  At  their  private  meetings,  there  were 
distortions  of  the  face,  leaping,  groaning  and 
shoutings.  Two  women,  the  wives  of  helpers, 
began  to  marry  and  to  divorce,  to  readmit  those 
who  had  been  excluded  from  the  Lord's  Supper, 
and  to  celebrate  that  ordinance ;  using  the  flesh 
of  fowls  for  bread,  and  water  for  wine.  The 
missionaries  were  at  length  threatened  and  in- 
sulted. Matthew  finally  announced  that  the 
world  would  be  destroyed  the  next  night.  He 
and  some  of  his  followers  went  to  a  mountain 
to  be  taken  up  thence  into  heaven.  The  night 
was  cold,  and  they  were  all  barefooted.  When 
morning  dawned,  their  delusion  was  gone,  and, 
with  feet  frost-bitten,  they  acknowledged  their 
error. 

A   survey   of    Moravian    labors  in   Greenland 
brings  to  view  a  great  amount  of  privation,  per- 
14 


210  MOEAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.V. 

severance  and  fidelity.  Beyond  a  very  frugal 
subsistence,  the  missionaries  look  for  nothing  in 
the  way  of  salary,  presents  or  perquisites ;  yet 
they  have  not  regarded  their  field  as  one  of 
cheerless  exile.  Even  in  those  days,  when  (1744) 
they  had  to  share  half-decayed  seal's  flesh  with 
the  natives,  they  could  write :  "  The  Lord  be 
praised,  amidst  all  this  he  gives  us  cheerful 
hearts  and  joy  in  our  Greenlanders,  which  is 
better  than  abundance  —  nay,  than  all  the  treas- 
ures of  the  earth."  Great  perils  have  been 
encountered  from  the  first.  At  one  time,  when 
the  Brethren  were  out  in  search  of  fuel,  a  con- 
trary wind  and  driving  storm  kept  them  prison- 
ers for  eight  days  on  a  desert  island,  in  piercing 
cold  and  without  protection.  At  another  time 
(1804),  missionary  Rudolph  and  wife,  being 
wrecked  on  their  return  voyage,  lay  among  the 
rocks  of  a  barren  island  for  eight  days,  and 
when  rescued  were  at  the  point  of  death.  Those 
of  us  who  are  accustomed  to  voyaging  only  in 
our  own  latitude,  have  a  very  inadequate  idea 
of  what  it  is  to  approach  an  Arctic  coast,  amidst 
strong  winds  and  currents,  fog  and  ice. 

"  In  front  of  the  Greenland  glacier-line, 

And  close  to  its  base,  were  we ; 
Through  the  misty  pall  we  could  see  the  waH 

That  beetled  above  the  sea. 
A  fear  like  the  fog  crept  over  our  hearts, 

As  we  heard  the  hollow  roar 
Of  the  deep  sea  thrashing  the  cliffs  of  ice, 

For  leagues  along  the  shore." 


LTCT.  vo  STATISTICS  AND  RESULTS.  211 

Still,  amidst  the  numerous  voyages  to  and  from 
Greenland,  while  many  ships  have  perished,  only 
one  missionary,  Daniel  Schneider  (1742),  has 
lost  his  life  at  sea.  The  preserving  goodness  of 
God  has  been  wonderful.  Not  till  thirty  years 
after  the  establishment  of  the  mission  did  the 
funeral  of  a  Moravian  brother,  that  of  Frederick 
Bb'nisch,  take  place  in  Greenland.  In  spite  of 
extreme  privations  and  toil,  the  missionaries 
have,  as  a  general  thing,  had  excellent  health, 
and  have  suffered  little  from  acute  diseases. 

The  whole  number  of  Eskimos  now  in  the 
country  is  estimated  at  from  eight  to  ten  thou- 
sand. The  Moravian  mission,  confined  to  the 
southwestern  coast,  has  six  stations.  New  Herrn- 
hut,  the  earliest  and  most  northern,  was  estab- 
lished in  1733 ;  next,  Lichtenfels,  eighty  miles 
to  the  south,  situated  on  an  island  in  Fisher's 
Inlet,  established  in  1758.  The  place  is  envi- 
roned with  naked  rocks ;  but  the  Brethren,  apply- 
ing the  promise,  "Arise,  shine,  for  thy  light  is 
come,"  gave  to  it  the  name  of  Lichtenfels,  "  Rock 
of  Light."  More  than  three  hundred  miles  still 
further  to  the  south  lies  Lichtenau,  "Meadow 
of  Light,"  begun  in  1774;  and  forty  miles  far- 
ther on,  in  the  same  direction,  Fried richsthal, 
founded  in  1824.  The  two  more  recent  stations, 
Umanak  and  Igdlorpait,  date  respectively  from 
1861  and  1864. 

At  the  present  time  (1881),  the  corps  of  mis- 


212  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.  v. 

sionaries  numbers  nineteen,  and  the  native  mem- 
bership 1,545.  In  1801,  the  last  Greenlander  on 
the  field  belonging  properly  to  the  Moravians 
received  baptism ;  but  later  (1829-30),  there 
came  small  companies  of  heathen  Eskimos  from 
the  eastern  or  rather  southeastern  coast,  a  region 
inaccessible  to  Europeans,  and  planted  .  them- 
selves chiefly  in  the  neighborhood  of  Friedrichs- 
thal,  thus  coming  within  reach  of  the  missionaries. 
A  few  of  those  on  the  eastern  coast  at  the 
present  time  find  their  way  annually  around 
Cape  Farewell,  to  barter  such  products  as  they 
have  with  Danish  merchants,  and  are  then  ap- 
proached by  Christian  teachers. 

In  spite  of  embarrassments  the  most  formi- 
dable, Greenlanders  as  a  body  have  risen  from 
the  condition  of  wild,  filthy  savages  to  that 
of  a  docile  and  civilized  people.  Rude,  indeed, 
they  still  remain,  mere  children ;  but  they  are 
no  longer  brutish,  nor  are  they  idolaters.  The 
barbarities  of  former  times  have  ceased;  old 
superstitions  have  nearly  disappeared ;  compara- 
tive kindness,  order  and  decorum  reign.  A  high 
degree  of  refinement  cannot  be  expected,  and 
might  not  be  desirable ;  but  it  is  a  noble  achieve- 
ment of  the  United  Brethren  to  have  approached 
that  continent  of  ice;  to  have  domiciled  with 
a  tribe  so  stupid,  so  beastly  in  their  habits,  over 
whose  heads  the  Great  Bear  circles  the  year 
round;  to  have  given  them  God's  Word  and 


LKCT.V.J  STATISTICS  AND  RESULTS.  213 

sacred  hymns ;  and,  along  with  Danish  co-labor- 
ers, gradually  to  have  drawn  them  into  the  green 
pastures  of  a  rational  and  religious  life. 

Dr.  Kane,  to  his  great  delight,  found  a  flower 
at  the  foot  of  Humboldt  Glacier.  The  fairest 
plant  anywhere  to  be  seen  on  earth  was  trans- 
planted to  the  rugged  shores  of  southern  Green- 
land by  Moravian  faith,  and  nurtured  by  Mora- 
vian prayers  and  toils.  The  wilderness  and  the 
solitary  place  have  been  made  glad  for  them; 
and  never  does  William  Cowper  sing  more  beau- 
tifully than  when  he  kindles  at  the  Christian 
heroism  of  these  humble  Germans : 

"  Fired  with  a  zeal  peculiar,  they  defy 
The  rage  and  rigor  of  a  Polar  sky, 
And  plant  successfully  sweet  Sharon's  rose 
On  icy  plains  and  in  eternal  snows." 


LECTURE  VI. 

MISSION  TO  LABRADOR. 


MISSION  TO   LABRADOR. 


LABRADOR — the  country,  people  and  mission 
— is  a  twin  sister  of  Greenland.  Lying  between 
the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  Hudson's  Bay,  it  is  a 
great  and  terrible  wilderness,  a  triangular  penin- 
sula, with  an  area  twice  as  large  as  the  British 
Isles,  and  five  times  as  large  as  the  kingdom  of 
Prussia.  Geologically,  it  is  said  to  be  the  oldest 
land  now  above  the  surface  of  the  ocean.  The 
interior  has  been  but  partially  explored,  and 
appears  to  be  a  region  of  hills  and  mountain 
ridges,  and  of  plateaus  strewn  with  granite 
bowlders.  Lakes  and  swamps  abound.  The 
name,  Terra  Labrador,  "  Cultivable  Land "  — 
the  only  existing  trace  of  Portuguese  presence 
on  the  Continent  of  North  America  —  suggests 
the  same  illusion  or  irony  as  led  Eric  to  call  the 
desolate  region  he  had  discovered  Greenland, 
and  Captain  Cook  to  call  one  savage  group 
inhabited  by  cannibals  the  Friendly  Islands.1 
Plains  of  moss,  and,  toward  the  south,  forests 

1  French  explorers  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  seem  to 
have  labored  under  a  similar  delusion  when  they  gave  the 
names  Petit  Bras  d'Or  and  Grand  Bras  d'Or,  for  no  quarter 
of  the  globe  is  more  innocent  of  gold  than  that. 

(217) 


218  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LBCT.VI. 

of  stunted  pines  and  birches,  are  found,  but 
no  fruit-trees.  Even  in  more  favored  portions, 
agriculture  is  rendered  impracticable  by  snow 
and  ice.  Here,  however,  is  the  beautiful  lab- 
radorite,  a  feldspar  remarkable  for  its  iridescent 
tints,  which  was  discovered  by  the  Moravian 
Brethren. 

This  sterile  solitude,  belonging  politically  to 
Newfoundland,  differs  less  than  we  might  ex- 
pect from  the  Arctic  regions.  Cape  Chudleigh, 
the  extreme  northeastern  point,  reaches  only  to 
the  latitude  of  Cape  Farewell ;  yet,  partly  owing 
to  geographical  position  as  related  to  winds 
and  ocean  currents,  Upper  Labrador  is  colder  and 
more  bleak  than  Lower  Greenland.  At  Hopedale, 
the  most  southern  Moravian  station,  seventy 
degrees  below  the  freezing  point  of  Fahrenheit 
have  been  registered.  Sometimes  snow  falls  to 
a  depth  of  fifteen  feet,  houses  being  completely 
buried.  Hoar-frost  settles  in  greatest  profusion 
and  in  the  most  fantastic  forms ;  rectified  spirits 
thicken  like  oil.  As  the  cold  season  advances, 
and  the  frost  penetrates  deeper  and  deeper, 
rocks  split  with  loud  explosive  sounds.  Dur- 
ing the  short  season  of  summer  heat,  nuosquitoes, 
the  pest  of  man  and  beast,  swarm  fearfully,  and 
are  more  dreaded  than  the  black  bears. 

The  coast-line,  extending  toward  a  thousand 
miles,  indented  with  bays  like  the  western  coast 
of  Greenland,  is  one  long,  broken  precipice  of 


LECT.VI.]  NASCOPIES  AND  INDIANS.  219 

jagged  rocks,  against  which  sullen  waves  from 
the  Atlantic  have  dashed  for  ages.  That  stern 
rampart  is  flanked  by  numberless  islands,  among 
which  the  eider-duck  is  very  abundant.  Almost 
the  only  visitors  ever  seen  in  these  waters  are 
icebergs,  those  contributions  of  Greenland  rivers 
—  rivers  not  fluid,  but  solid,  and  ceaseless  in 
their  movement  into  the  fiords,  whence  in  huge 
fragments  they  reach  the  open  sea.  Floating 
down  from  Polar  regions,  they  seem  now  a  pyra- 
mid, now  a  coliseum,  at  one  time  a  mosque,  at 
another  a  cathedral,  majestic,  crystalline  and  with 
a  wonderful  play  of  light  and  shade  —  some  of 
them  nearly  white,  others  blue  as  sapphires, 
others  green  as  emeralds. 

In  the  interior  live  a  few  Indians,  the  Nasco- 
pies,  called  by  the  French  Montagnais  (moun- 
taineers)— with  French  features;  somewhat  like 
gypsies  in  their  habits,  Roman  Catholic  in  their 
belief;  who  resort  once  a  year  to  the  shore  of  the 
Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  for  the  purpose  of  barter, 
and  for  certain  rites  of  their  religion.  But  the 
Eskimos  are  found,  as  in  Greenland,  chiefly  by 
the  coast;  and,  as  before  stated,  they  also  skirt 
the  shore  of  the  Polar  Ocean  across  the  conti- 
nent. Indeed,  along  with  their  supposed  con- 
geners, the  circumarctic  inhabitants  on  the 
Asiatic  side  of  that  ocean,  they  are  the  only 
race  that,  by  any  approach  to  continuity,  encir- 
cle the  globe.  Between  them  and  the  Indians 


220  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LEcr.vi. 

of  the  interior,  there  existed  as  wide  a  gulf  in 
feeling  as  in  race  —  a  bitter  feud,  which  proved 
very  destructive  to  the  Eskimos  till,  chiefly 
through  the  efforts  of  Moravian  missionaries, 
it  was  brought  to  a  close.  Before  Christian 
labor  was  begun  among  them,  the  Eskimos  were 
accounted  peculiarly  treacherous  and  supersti- 
tious. As  elsewhere,  they  were  ruled  by  sor- 
cerers, called  Angekoks.  Their  whole  character 
seemed  in  keeping  with  the  aspect  of  the 
country,  grim  and  repulsive.  While  the  climate 
of  Labrador  is  more  inclement  than  that  of 
Lower  Greenland,  the  people  were,  if  possible, 
more  degraded.  Their  dwellings  and  habits  no 
less  filthy,  their  features,  color,  dress,  amulets 
and  superstitions  the  same,  they  have  less  sim- 
plicity, but  more  pride  and  arrogance,  than  their 
neighbors  on  the  opposite  side  of  Davis  Strait. 
The  youth  who  has  shot  a  few  ptarmigans  is  a 
great  man;  he  becomes  vastly  supercilious  and 
boastful.  Nowhere  else  on  the  surface  of  our 
globe  is  a  larger  share  of  time  and  strength 
required  to  secure  the  bare  means  of  livelihood. 
Ground  that  is  frozen  nine  or  more  months  of 
the  year  can  yield  no  staple  for  food,  nor  are 
tame  animals  reared  for  that  purpose.  The 
dogs,  wolf-like  in  shape,  never  bark,  but  only 
howl.  They  are  exceedingly  quarrelsome,  yet 
will  travel  two  days  without  food.  Nine  dogs 
have  been  known  to  draw  a  weight  of  sixteen 


UCT.VI.]  PEEVIOUS  NEGLECT.  221 

hundred  pounds  the  distance  of  a  mile  in  ten 
minutes.  When  one  of  them  receives  a  lash,  he 
bites  his  neighbor,  and  so  the  bite  goes  round 
—  a  habit  somewhat  human. 

Now,  though  a  Christian  mission  should  be 
established  among  this  people,  the  necessities 
of  their  occupation  will  keep  them  away  from 
the  stations,  and  their  children  away  from  school 
for  months  every  year.  Is  there  any  hope  for 
a  people  thus  situated  and  so  debased?  Will 
not  Holy  Scripture  and  the  Holy  Spirit  find 
in  that  sunken  race  material  beyond  the  power 
of  renovation?  Does  not  such  a  frightful  region 
lie  outside  the  scope  of  Christ's  command,  "  Go 
teach  all  nations  "  ? 

Heaven  would  not  be  complete  without  con- 
verted Eskimos  from  Labrador.  True,  since  the 
discovery  of  their  land,  they  had  remained  for 
nearly  three  centuries  wholly  neglected.  And,  so 
far  as  known,  they  were  despised  by  European 
visitors;  were  deemed  scarcely  human,  a  refuse 
race,  as  little  to  be  cared  for  as  their  cheerless 
coast  was  to  be  visited.  For  one  hundred  years, 
the  Hudson's  Ba}^  Company,  though  composed 
of  men  nominally  Christians,  had  held  possession, 
without  lifting  a  finger  toward  evangelizing  na- 
tives on  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic,  or  at  their 
posts  on  interior  waters.  The  extraordinary 
charter  granted  by  Charles  II  of  England  (1669) 
to  that  company,  with  such  sweeping  privileges, 


222  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.VI. 

conferring  "on  them  exclusively  all  the  lands 
in  Hudson's  Bay,  together  with  all  the  trade 
thereof,  and  all  others  which  they  should  ac- 
quire," with  a  subordinate  sovereignty  by  an 
absolute  proprietorship  and  commercial  suprem- 
acy, remained  in  force  till  1863.  They  employ 
twelve  hundred  men,  and  have  one  hundred 
and  fifty  settlements — a  long  chain  of  forts  and 
factories  extending  from  the  coast  of  Labrador 
to  the  Pacific,  and  from  the  northern  boundary 
of  Canada  to  the  Arctic  Ocean.  But  it  was 
reserved  for  another  nationality,  and  for  men 
of  other  training,  first  to  put  forth  Christian 
effort  in  behalf  of  the  Eskimo.  The  severe  school 
of  Greenland  furnished  pioneers. 

The  earliest  attempt  in  this  line  was  made 
by  John  Christian  Ehrhardt,  a  Moravian  pilot, 
from  Holland.  When  visiting  St.  Thomas,  in 
the  West  Indies,  as  a  sailor,  he  had  been  con- 
verted (1741)  through  the  instrumentality  of 
Frederick  Martin,  the  excellent  Moravian  mis- 
sionary laboring  there.  Afterwards  he  went  out 
on  northern  voyages;  visited  New  Herrnhut,  in 
Greenland ;  and  had  a  strong  desire  awakened 
to  carry  the  gospel  to  tribes  of  whom  he  heard, 
further  south.  Writing  to  Bishop  von  Watte- 
ville  (1750),  he  says:  "I  have  also  an  amazing 
affection  for  those  northern  countries,  for  Indians 
and  other  barbarians ;  and  it  would  be  the  source 
of  the  greatest  joy  if  the  Saviour  would  discover 


LECT.  vi.]  EHRHAKDT.  223 

to  me  that  he  has  chosen  me,  and  would  make 
me  fit,  for  this  service.  .  .  .  Whoever  has  seen 
our  cause  in  Greenland  and  what  the  Saviour 
has  clone  to  the  poor  heathen  there,  surely  his 
heart  and  his  eyes  must  overflow  with  tears  of 
joy,  if  he  possess  any  feeling  of  interest  in  the 
happiness  of  others;  they  are,  indeed,  sparkling 
rubies  in  the  golden  girdle  of  our  Saviour." 
Von  Watteville  encouraged  the  Arctic  seaman 
who  carried  so  warm  a  heart,  but  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company  refused  permission  to  have  the 
gospel  preached  to  savages  in  the  neighborhood 
of  their  factories.  English  merchants,  however, 
sent  a  vessel  for  trade  to  Labrador,  and  made 
Ehrhardt  supercargo.  With  him  was  associated 
a  party  of  four  Moravian  missionaries,  who  vol- 
unteered to  be  left  on  the  coast.  The  Hope  — 
for  the  vessel  bore  the  same  auspicious  name 
as  did  that  which  carried  Egede  to  Greenland  — 
touched  at  a  point  on  the  southeastern  coast  in 
July,  1752.  The  natives  were  gratified  to  find 
that  Ehrhardt  understood  their  language,  which 
differs  from  that  of  Greenland  Eskimos  only  as 
a  dialect,  the  difference  being  less  than  between 
High  and  Low  German.  The  Brethren  set  up 
the  house  which  they  had  taken  out  from  Eng- 
land, and,  with  characteristic  buoyancy  of  antici- 
pation, named  the  place  Hoffenthal  (Hopedale). 
Ehrhardt,  after  receiving  their  farewell  letters  for 
Europe,  took  prayerful  leave,  and  sailed  up  the 


224  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.VI. 

coast  to  complete  a  cargo ;  but,  within  less  than 
two  weeks  from  his  departure,  the  Brethren 
were  surprised  to  see  the  Hope  reenter  their 
harbor.  Ehrhardt,  accompanied  by  the  captain 
and  five  sailors,  had  landed  with  merchandise 
on  the  coast  to  the  north,  but  did  not  return 
to  his  ship.  They  were  probably  murdered. 
There  was  no  second  boat  for  the  rest  of  the 
crew  to  go  in  search  of  their  comrades ;  and, 
after  waiting  a  while  in  distressing  anxiety,  they 
sailed  back  to  Hoffenthal.  The  mate,  now  short 
of  hands,  implored  the  missionaries  to  assist  in 
navigating  the  ship  to  England ;  and  thus  closed 
the  first  endeavor  to  Christianize  Labrador,  with 
a  melancholy  resemblance  to  the  fate  of  the 
heroic  Captain  Gardiner,  who  made  the  earliest 
attempt  to  Christianize  Antarctic  regions. 

The  second  attempt  was  made  by  Jens  Haven, 
of  Danish  birth,  a  Moravian  carpenter,  and  who, 
instead  of  being  deterred,  was  drawn  toward 
that  land  of  savages  by  the  alarming  fate  of 
Ehrhardt.  Any  man  loyal  to  his  countiy,  or 
loyal  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  will  be  stimu- 
lated by  the  martyrdom  of  others.  We  shall 
presently  have  occasion  to  notice  the  untimely 
loss  of  two  members  of  this  Labrador  mission. 
Did  their  sad  end  deter  others  from  the  service  ? 
Listen  to  a  statement  of  Samuel  Liebisch,  one 
of  their  successors:  "Toward  the  end  of  the 
year  1774,"  he  says,  "  I  was  deeply  affected  by 


LEOT.VI.]  JENS   HAVEN.  225 

the  painful  intelligence  of  the  shipwreck  and 
death  of  the  Brethren  Brasen  and  Lehman,  off 
the  coast  of  Labrador.  This  catastrophe  sug- 
gested the  serious  question  to  my  mind,  whether 
I  should  be  willing  to  engage  in  my  Saviour's 
service  even  at  the  peril  of  my  life,  and  to 
take  Brother  Brasen's  place  if  it  were  required 
of  me.  I  was  enabled  to  answer  this  heart- 
searching  question  in  the  affirmative,  with  full 
confidence  and  assurance  of  faith." '  So  has  it 
often  been.  When  Colman  falls  in  Burmah,  the 
zeal  of  Boardman  and  his  wife  is  fired.  The 
early  death  of  Harriet  Newell  only  rouses  Harriet 
Winslow  to  follow  her.  Lyman  and  Munson 
perish  by  the  hands  of  Battas,  but  Lowry  is 
moved  to  offer  himself  for  work  in  the  East. 
When,  in  turn,  he  dies  by  the  hands  of  pirates, 
many  a  heart  is  thrilled  with  a  feeling  the  oppo- 
site of  dread. 

For  six  years,  Jens  Haven  had  devoted  his 
leisure  to  the  study  of  those  northern  coasts 
of  America ;  he  hud  longed  and  prayed  that 
he  might  be  sent  to  Labrador.  Following  Zin- 
zendorf's  advice,  he  went  first  to  Greenland,  that 
he  might  learn  the  language,  and  labored  for 
several  years  at  Lichtenfels.  Finally,  his  origi- 
nal design  was  fulfilled.  With  letters  of  intro- 
duction to  Sir  Hugh  Palisser,  Governor  of  New- 

1  Periodical  Accounts,  XIX,  212. 
15 


226  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VI. 

foundland,  he  sailed  for  that  island ;  was  received 
with  much  kindness,  and  then,  taking  a  French 
vessel,  proceeded  to  Labrador  (1764).  On  the 
first  landing  of  Haven,  the  natives  desired  him 
to  accompany  them  to  an  island  half  an  hour 
distant.  Considering  their  character  and  what 
had  been  the  fate  of  Ehrhardt,  this  naturally 
seemed  a  most  hazardous  venture.  He  says, 
however :  "  I  confidently  turned  to  the  Lord 
in  prayer,  and  thought  within  myself,  'I  will 
go  with  them  in  thy  name.  If  they  kill  me,  my 
work  on  earth  will  be  done,  and  I  shall  be 
with  thee;  but,  if  they  spare  my  life,  I  shall 
firmly  believe  it  to  be  thy  will  that  they  should 
hear  and  embrace  the  gospel.'  I  accordingly 
went;  and,  as  soon  as  we  arrived  there,  all  set 
up  a  shout,  'Our  friend  is  come ! ' '  The  next 
year,  Haven  revisits  the  same  coast  in  company 
with  two  other  Moravian  Brethren,  as  well  as 
Drachart,  a  Danish  missionary,  formerly  in  Green- 
land, now  a  Moravian.  Hindrances,  however, 
prevent  the  actual  establishment  of  a  mission  till 
later.  The  Moravians  had  presented  a  petition 
to  the  Privy  Council  of  England,  and  George  III 
granted  "  one  hundred  acres  of  land  on  the 
coast  of  Labrador,  wherever  they  pleased  to 
locate  themselves,  for  the  purpose  of  evangeliz- 
ing the  heathen  inhabitants."  The  Brethren  in 
London  fitted  out  a  vessel,  and  sent  Haven, 
Drachart  and  others  to  the  inhospitable  region. 


LECT.  VI.] 


MTKAK.  227 


A  clan  unlike  some  of  their  race  was  found, 
which  welcomed  the  expedition  (1770).  This 
reception  was  due  in  part  to  Mikak,  a  female 
who  had  been  captured  in  a  battle  between 
European  colonists  and  the  Eskimos  (1768), 
had  been  taken  to  England,  in  some  measure 
educated,  and  now,  with  her  husband,  was  pre- 
pared to  conciliate  her  countrymen  to  the  new- 
comers. She  presented  herself  in  a  white  gar- 
ment, the  gift  of  the  Princess  of  Wales,  decked 
with  gold  stars  and  lace,  and  in  front  a  gold 
medallion  containing  a  likeness  of  the  King  of 
England.  During  her  exile  in  Great  Britain, 
she  had  made  representations  in  regard  to  the 
degraded  condition  of  her  countrymen,  and  had 
entreated  Haven  that  he  would  return  from 
England  to  Labrador  with  a  view  to  do  them 
good.  That  had  influence  originally  in  helping 
on  the  enterprise,  as  did  the  statements  of  the 
negro  Anthony  relative  to  slaves  in  the  West 
Indies,  before  Moravian  missionaries  set  out  for 
St.  Thomas. 

The  next  year,  arrangements  were  made  for 
establishing  a  permanent  mission.  Fifteen  per- 
sons composed  the  company,  Haven  and  Dra- 
chart  being  among  them.  Three  of  the  Brethren 
were  married  ;  eight  of  the  party  were  laymen. 
To  the  place  selected,  a  little  above  latitude  56° 
and  about  eighty  miles  north  of  Hopedale,  they 
gave  the  name  of  Nain.  Numbers  of  the  natives 


228  MOE AVIAN   MISSIONS.  CLECT.VI. 

settled  temporarily  near  the  spot,  and  attended 
upon  preaching  in  the  summer  months,  but,  when 
winter  came,  would  withdraw  to  different  parts 
of  the  coast.  A  little  insight  into  the  experi- 
ences of  the  Brethren  may  be  gathered  from 
a  leaf  of  Haven's  journal  of  a  visit  to  one  of 
the  native  families :  "  We  were  forced  to  creep 
on  all  fours  through  a  low  passage,  several 
fathoms  long,  to  get  into  the  house ;  and  were 
glad  if  we  escaped  being  bitten  by  the  hungry 
dogs,  which  take  refuge  there  in  cold  weather, 
and  which,  as  they  lie  in  the  dark,  are  often 
trodden  upon  by  the  visitor,  who,  if  he  escapes 
from  this  misfortune,  is  compelled  to  undergo 
the  more  disgusting  salutation  of  being  licked 
in  the  face  by  these  animals,  and  of  crawling 
through  the  filth  in  which  they  mingle.  Yet 
this  house,  notwithstanding  our  senses  of  see- 
ing and  smelling  were  most  wofuily  offended  in 
such  frightful  weather,  was  of  equal  welcome 
to  us  as  the  greatest  palace."  Jens  Haven  and 
his  associates,  plain  men,  were  taught  of  God, 
and  they  formed  a  Christian  estimate  of  their 
degraded  fellow-men. 

Previous  endeavors  of  the  Moravians  to  begin 
missionary  work  had  proved,  as  we  have  seen, 
only  exploring  visits.  This  was  the  earliest 
successful  establishment  upon  the  rugged  coast. 
An  Order  in  Council  had  been  issued  (1774), 
giving  to  the  Brethren  a  second  tract  of  land, 


LBCT.VI.]  JENS  HAVEN.  229 

one  hundred  thousand  acres  in  extent,  for  mis- 
sionary purposes,  which  tract,  with  the  full  ap- 
proval of  the  natives,  was  appropriated  in  the 
name  of  the  King,  and  a  second  station  com- 
menced on  an  island  in  the  Bay  of  Okak,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  the  north  of  Nain 
(1776),  at  which  latter  place  the  first  Eskimo 
convert  in  Labrador  received  baptism  the  same 
year.  The  indefatigable  Haven,  one  among  the 
pioneers  of  that  movement  also,  declared  that 
the  first  months  at  Okak  were  the  happiest  of 
his  life ;  for  he  had  opportunity  to  preach  Christ 
crucified,  in  some  instances,  four  or  five  times 
a  day,  and  to  persons,  for  the  most  part,  not 
reluctant  to  hear  him.  About  the  same  dis- 
tance to  the  south  of  Nain  was  opened  (1782)  the 
third  station,  three  hundred  miles  north  from 
the  Straits  of  Belisle,  near  the  spot  where  the 
first  unsuccessful  attempt  had  been  made ;  and 
to  it  was  given  the  original  name,  Hoffenthal. 
Owing  to  more  intercourse  with  unprincipled 
European  traders,  the  natives  in  that  quarter 
were  found  less  susceptible  to  Christianizing  in- 
fluences than  even  those  farther  north.  Here, 
too,  the  devoted  Jens  Haven  spent  two  years  in 
hard  toil;  but  infirmities  came  upon  him,  and 
he  was  obliged  to  return  to  Europe  (1784).  The 
last  six  years  of  his  life  he  was  totally  blind, 
but  never  ceased  to  be  resigned  and  cheerful. 
In  his  seventy-second  year  (1796),  he  went  to 


230  MOEAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.TI. 

his  everlasting  rest,  leaving  this  memorandum 
on  a  slip  of  paper,  which  was  found :  "I  wish 
the  following  to  be  added  to  the  narrative  of 
my  life :  '  On  such  a  day,  Jens  Haven,  a  poor 
sinner,  who  in  his  own  judgment  deserves  con- 
demnation, fell  happily  asleep,  relying  on  the 
death  and  merits  of  Christ.' " 

The  year  eighteen  hundred  and  thirty  wit- 
nessed the  establishment  of  a  fourth  station, 
called  Hebron,  one  hundred  miles  to  the  north 
of  Okak,  the  materials  for  the  mission  buildings 
being  taken  out  as  usual  from  England.  Still 
another  enterprise  of  the  same  kind  was  started 
in  1865,  the  locality  lying  between  Nain  and 
Hoffenthal,  and  was  called  Zoar.  The  sixth 
and  last  station  was  founded  at  Ramah,  sixty 
miles  above  Hebron,  on  the  coast  of  Nullatartok 
Bay.  Funds  for  this  purpose  were  raised  in 
England,  and  expressly  with  a  view  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  "Jubilee  Station,"  in  the  year  1871, 
the  centennial  of  the  first  permanent  missionary 
foothold  on  the  coast  of  Labrador. 

In  carrying  on  this  mission,  which  has  now 
(1881)  a  history  of  a  hundred  and  ten  years, 
the  Moravian  Brethren  have  met  with  trials  and 
discouragements  peculiarly  disheartening  —  the 
condition,  character  and  habits  of  the  natives, 
half  the  population  of  a  settlement  being  absent 
for  months ;  the  rigors  of  a  climate  which  seems 
to  protest  vehemently  against  the  presence  of 


MOT.  vi.]  EMBARRASSMENTS.  231 

man ;  epidemics,  such  as  influenza,  whooping- 
cough,  dysentery,  erysipelas,  occasionally  carry- 
ing off  one  fifth  or  more  of  the  Eskimos  at  a 
settlement,  and  calling  for  assiduous  attention 
from  missionaries.  At  other  times,  a  distemper 
has  swept  away  the  beasts  of  burden  —  there 
is  but  one  species,  the  dog  —  thus  leaving  the 
people  greatly  crippled  in  their  search  for  means 
of  subsistence.  Seasons  of  famine  have  occurred. 
Like  most  others  in  so  rude  a  state,  the  Eskimo 
is  exceedingly  improvident,  living  from  hand  to 
mouth,  selling  out  all  his  stores  to  traders,  eat- 
ing enormously  when  there  is  plenty,  but  mani- 
festing a  childish  unconcern  about  exigencies 
which  are  liable  to  come  at  any  time.  The 
winter  of  1836-7,  for  instance,  was  characterized 
by  extreme  severity  and  destitution,  when  fam- 
ished natives  were  compelled  to  eat  the  skin 
coverings  of  their  tents,  to  feed  on  boots  and 
the  like.  At  another  period  of  distress  (1851), 
the  missionaries  distributed  seventy  thousand 
dried  fish  among  the  destitute  of  Okak  alone  ; 
and,  at  that  station,  out  of  three  hundred  dogs 
only  twenty  survived.  During  another  similar 
season  (1855-6),  several  converts,  being  remote 
from  any  settlement,  died  of  starvation.  The 
introduction  of  ardent  spirits,  by  outside  fisher- 
men and  traders,  has  exerted  a  demoralizing  in- 
fluence ;  and  the  same  is  true,  in  general,  as 
respects  their  intercourse  with  foreigners,  most 


232  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LBCT.  vi. 

of  whom  have  had  no  regard  to  the  highest  wel- 
fare of  t)iis  inferior  and  untutored  race.  Not 
less  than  a  thousand  vessels  are  engaged  in  the 
Labrador  fisheries ;  other  fleets  are  devoted  to 
the  pursuit  of  seals,  which  are  caught  chiefly 
by  Newfoundlanders,  to  the  annual  value  of  a 
million  and  a  half  of  dollars.  Traders  endeavor 
to  detach  the  Eskimos  from  the  missionaries' 
influence,  in  order  to  use  them  more  entirely 
in  the  interest  of  a  traffic  which  is  often  none 
too  scrupulous.  Gambling  is  one  of  the  arts 
which  civilized  men  have  taught  the  natives. 

Upon  first  acquaintance,  the  Eskimos  usually 
treated  Europeans  in  an  utterly  contemptuous 
manner,  calling  them  dogs  and  barbarians.  Their 
gross,  self-righteous  stolidity  was  often  a  most 
discouraging  feature ;  as,  when  Drachart  spoke 
of  the  depravity  of  mankind,  they  would  admit 
that  it  might  be  true  in  regard  to  foreigners, 
but  entirely  inapplicable  to  themselves.  When 
he  told  them  how  some  of  the  Greenlanders  had 
been  washed  in  the  Saviour's  blood,  their  reply 
was :  "  They  must  have  been  extremely  wicked 
to  be  in  need  of  such  a  process."  As  he  was 
discoursing  on  one  occasion  about  Christ's  great 
love  in  dying  for  us,  an  Eskimo  remarked: 
"There  is  nothing  wonderful  in  God's  loving 
me,  for  I  never  killed  a  European  !  "  They  could 
see  no  practical  benefit  from  this  new  religion, 
which  did  not  promise  them  any  help  in  seal- 


HOT.  vi.]  PERSONAL  PERILS.  233 

fishing,  or  in  building  their  kayaks.  "We  nei- 
ther hear  nor  understand  what  you  say,"  was 
the  reply  of  a  heathen  at  Hebron  (1848) ; 
"  only  give  us  an  old  pipe  and  some  tobacco ; 
it  is  all  we  want."  That  also  they  learned  from 
foreigners,  bearing  the  name  of  Christians.1 

Peculiar  trials  incident  to  a  region  so  far  north 
are  often  encountered.  In  one  instance,  several 
Christian  Eskimos  were  fishing  on  a  mass  of  ice, 
which  suddenly  broke  loose  from  the  shore  and 
moved  out  to  sea.  They  had  already  taken  eight 
seals,  which  served  them  as  food,  though  un- 
cooked. Calling  to  mind  Paul's  shipwreck  and 
deliverance,  they  appear  to  have  had  an  unwa- 
vering trust  in  the  Saviour's  loving-kindness 
and  his  gracious  might;  and  on  the  thirteenth 
day  the  floating  mass  was  driven  coastwise  near 
enough  to  allow  of  their  escape.  Missionaries 
venturing  once  to  the  distance  of  forty  miles, 
for  a  pastoral  visit,  in  the  month  of  February, 
though  wrapped  in  furs,  nearly  perished  ;  their 
eyelids  froze  together  so  that  they  were  obliged 

1  The  claim  that  tobacco  acts  as  a  prophylactic  was  never 
so  vividly  illustrated  as  in  the  case  of  an  Eskimo,  who  was 
walking  alone  on  an  island  in  the  neighborhood  of  Nain,  when 
he  saw  six  wolves  advancing  rapidly  toward  him.  He  had 
no  weapon  of  defense  except  his  pipe,  which  he  began  to 
smoke  most  vigorously.  Sparks  fell  from  the  bowl,  and  a 
cloud  of  smoke  enveloped  his  person.  The  judicious  wolves 
turned  and  ran  in  the  opposite  direction.  Periodical  Accounts, 
XXIX,  481. 


234  MOEAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VI. 

to  keep  pulling  them  open,  their  hands  freezing 
the  meantime  and  swelling  like  bladders.  Three 
years  after  the  settlement  at  Nain  was  begun 
(1774),  a  voyage  of  exploration  to  the  north 
was  undertaken  with  reference  to  establishing 
another  station;  but  the  missionaries  suffered 
a  fearful  shipwreck,  and  two  of  them,  Brasen 
and  Lehman,  were  drowned.  Samuel  Liebisch  and 
another  missionary  named  Turner,  having  official 
occasion  to  visit  Okak  (1782),  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  from  Nain,  started  on  the  frozen  sea, 
with  three  native  men,  one  woman  and  a  child. 
After  a  while,  a  ground-swell  began ;  grating  and 
roaring  were  heard  ;  and  fissures  appeared  in  the 
undulating  ice.  As  the  sun  declined  and  dark- 
ness came  on,  a  storm  arose ;  snow  was  driven 
in  whirlwinds ;  and,  for  leagues  around,  noises 
were  heard  like  the  report  of  a  cannon,  as  the 
ice,  many  feet  in  thickness,  began  to  burst. 
Their  only  hope  now  was  in  rapidly  escaping  to 
the  shore  ;  but,  when  their  sledges  approached  the 
land,  the  ice,  already  detached  from  the  rocks, 
was  forced  up  and  down,  grinding  against  preci- 
pices, and  crumbling  in  pieces.  Only  with  great- 
est difficulty  could  the  frightened  dogs,  which 
drew  the  sledges,  be  urged  to  the  shore  at  the 
right  moment  when  the  general  mass  was  near- 
est on  a  level  with  the  coast.  Scarcely  had  they 
reached  the  land,  when  the  vast  frozen  platform 
broke  up,  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  and  the 


USCT.VI.]  LITERATURE.  235 

surface  of  the  sea  became  one  wild  area  of  tumult- 
uous waves  and  colliding  ice-fields,  with  a  roar 
like  batteries  of  heavy  ordnance.  Extreme  pri- 
vation and  suffering  followed.1 

What,  now,  are  some  of  the  results  of  Moravian 
labor  in  Labrador  ?  From  missionaries,  a  major- 
ity of  whom  are  not  above  the  grade  of  average 
mechanics,  no  great  achievement  can  be  looked 
for  in  the  line  of  literature.  With  great  labor, 
portions  of  Scripture  and  other  religious  matter 
have  been  translated  into  the  native  tongue,  and 
printed  at  the  expense  of  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society.  In  1809,  a  small  hymn-book  and  a 
few  tracts  were  ready,  which  the  converts,  both  in 
Greenland  and  Labrador,  received  with  delight. 
One  year  later,  a  Harmony  of  the  Gospels  was 
in  readiness.  Eighteen  hundred  and  twenty-one, 
the  first  jubilee  of  the  mission,  was  signalized 
by  the  distribution  of  the  entire  New  Testament 
in  the  vernacular.  At  once  the  poor  people, 
without  suggestion  from  any  one,  began  to  col- 
lect what  they  could,  and  forwarded  the  same 
to  England  as  a  thank-offering  to  the  society 
which  had  bestowed  so  invaluable  a  treasure 
upon  them.  Gold  and  silver  had  they  none, 
but  such  as  they  had  they  gave  —  one  the  fur 

1  There  have  been  other  forms  of  peril  besides  those  men- 
tioned above.  An  evil-minded  Eskimo,  who  had  been  called 
to  account  for  stealing,  fired  twice  at  Missionary  Eisner,  each 
time  with  two  balls,  yet  the  good  man  escaped  uninjured. 


236  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.  vi 

of  a  cross-fox,  and  one  a  white-fox  skin ;  some 
a  whole  seal,  some  a  half,  some  smaller  pieces. 
They  said  :  "  We  are  indeed  poor,  but  yet  might 
now  and  then  bring  some  blubber,  as  a  contribu- 
tion, that  others,  who  are  as  ignorant  as  we  were 
formerly,  may  receive  the  same  gospel  which 
has  been  so  sweet  to  our  souls,  and  thereby  be 
taught  to  find  the  way  to  Jesus  and  believe  on 
him."  When  the  mission's  second  jubilee  (1871) 
came  round,  printed  portions  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment were  distributed,  and  were  received  with 
deep  gratitude. 

In  regard  to  the  work  of  conversion  among 
Labrador  Eskimos,  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  the 
first  instance  occurred  in  England.  This  was  of 
the  youth  Karpik,  who  had  been  carried  to  that 
country  (1769)  by  Sir  Hugh  Palisser,  and  placed 
at  the  Moravian  settlement  of  Fulneck,  in  York- 
shire. He  came  under  the  influence  of  Haven 
and  Drachart,  embraced  Christianity,  received 
baptism,  and  almost  immediately  expired.  This 
occurred  prior  to  the  founding  of  the  mission. 
He  was  the  Henry  Obookiah  of  Labrador  —  that 
Sandwich-Islander  also  having  died,  it  will  be 
recollected,  a  year  before  the  American  Board 
established  a  mission  in  Hawaii.  At  the  outset, 
mistakes  were  made,  and  natives  were  sometimes 
admitted  to  the  sacraments  without  being  truly 
converted;  yet  there  were  pleasing  instances  of 
undoubted  piety.  One  was  Benjamin,  who,  in  his 


LBCT.VI.]  CONVERTS.  237 

last  sickness  (1803),  would  join  with  great  fervor 
in  such  hymns  as  that  of  Zinzendorf, 

"  The  Saviour's  blood  and  righteousness," 

and  was  all  the  while  repeating  appropriate  texts 
of  Scripture :  "  This  is  a  faithful  saying  and 
worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Jesus  Christ  came 
into  the  world  to  save  sinners ; "  "  The  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ  his  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin." 
Till  his  last  breath,  he  continued  to  speak  of  the 
Saviour's  love ;  and,  through  all  his  sickness,  the 
Eskimos  who  visited  him  were  deeply  affected  by 
his  Christian  confidence  and  joy. 

Another  was  Frederick,  a  helper  at  Okak,  who 
in  his  last  illness  could  say  to  Missionary  Barsoe : 
"I  am  a  pilgrim  and  a  stranger  here  below. 
As  to  the  body,  I  am  still  on  earth ;  but  as  to 
the  spirit,  I  am  already  in  heaven.  I  pray  daily 
to  our  Saviour  that  he  would  take  me  to  him- 
self." Such  manifestations,  however,  are  not 
peculiar  to  the  last  sickness.  Mention  might 
be  made  of  a  man  at  the  same  station,  who, 
striving  earnestly  to  direct  his  course  in  accord- 
ance with  God's  Word,  said:  "I  often  think 
on  rising  in  the  morning.  About  this  time  ray 
Saviour  was  for  my  sins  crowned  with  thorns, 
mocked  and  scourged ;  about  noon  I  think,  Now 
my  Saviour  was  condemned  to  death ;  and  in 
the  afternoon  I  remember  his  crucifixion  and 
death,  and  the  full  redemption  he  wrought  for 


238  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VI. 

me;  and  in  these  thoughts  the  time  passes  very 
quickly." ' 

Speaking  of  one  Sigsigak,  the  missionaries  say : 
"From  his  infancy,  he  had  wallowed  in  every 
kind  of  abomination,  and  was  guilty  of  the  most 
atrocious  deeds.  He  had  thus  spent  his  life,  and 
grown  gray,  in  the  service  of  Satan.  But  now 
how  is  he  changed  by  the  power  of  Jesus'  blood, 
which  cleanseth  from  all  sin!  The  ferocious  and 
terrific  countenance  of  this  late  monster  of  in- 
iquity, which  made  one  tremble  at  his  appearance, 
is  converted  into  a  mild,  gentle  aspect ;  the  sav- 
age bear  has  become  a  gentle  lamb ;  and  the 
slave  and  instrument  of  the  Devil,  a  humble 
follower  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  and  a  true  child 
of  God."  After  making  profession  of  faith,  in 
a  fit  of  sudden  anger  he  struck  his  wife ;  but 
of  his  own  accord  he  made  confession,  adding : 
"While  I  was  in  this  passion,  I  felt  a  strong 
reproof  in  my  heart,  and  it  seemed  to  me  as 
if  I  had  struck  Jesus  himself  in  the  face.  I  was 
powerfully  convinced  of  the  deep  depravity  of 
my  soul,  and  that  on  account  of  my  sins  Jesus 
had  been  tormented  and  slain  ;  yea,  that  even  I 
by  my  sins  have  slain  him."  The  private  record 
made  by  the  pious  Robert  Adam,  of  Wintring- 
ham,  comes  to  mind :  "  It  was  not  only  Pontius 
Pilate  and  the  Jews,  but  my  sins,  I  myself,  that 

1  Periodical  Accounts,  XXVI,  173. 


LWjT.vi.3  FEMALE    CONVERTS.  239 

condemned  Christ,  that  scourged  him,  and  spit 
upon  him,  that  drove  the  nails  into  his  hands 
and  feet,  and  pierced  his  side,  and  forced  him 
to  cry  out,  'My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou 
forsaken  me  ? '  " '  —  a  sentiment  which  is  the  bur- 
den of  a  hymn  by  Bonar : 

"  'T  was  I  that  shed  the  sacred  blood ; 

I  nailed  him  to  the  tree ; 
I  crucified  the  Christ  of  God, 
I  joined  the  mockery." 

How  is  it  with  Eskimo  women  ?  They,  too,  have 
shown  the  transforming  power  of  God's  grace. 
One  was  a  widow,  named  Esther,  who  died  1792. 
On  a  visit  at  Nain,  in  childhood,  she  heard  of 
Jesus,  and  never  lost  the  impression  then  made. 
She  would  retire  to  a  secluded  spot  on  the  hill 
near  her  birthplace,  and  pour  out  her  heart  in 
prayer  to  the  Friend  in  heaven  whose  name  she 
had  learned.  After  many  sufferings  and  trials, 
she  found  at  Okak  full  rest  to  the  soul,  and 
was  the  first  Eskimo  who  kept  her  profession 
unblemished  to  the  end.  Another,  called  Ajai- 
nak,  being  asked  if  she  did  not  wish  to  become 
a  candidate  for  baptism,  replied :  "I  do  some- 
times think  about  it,  but  more  about  my  being 
so  very  great  a  sinner ;  and  I  cry  with  tears  to 
Jesus  that  he  would  forgive  me  my  sins,  and 
grant  me  to  know  him  as  my  Saviour.  I  feel  I 

1  Private  Thoughts,  p.  13. 


240  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LUCT.VI. 

am  unholy  and  unclean,  and  cannot  thus  belong 
to  Jesus ;  what  would  it,  therefore,  avail  if  I  were 
a  candidate  for  baptism  and  did  not  know  him, 
and  that  he  has  forgiven  my  sins?  .  .  .  God  is 
my  Father,"  she  would  often  say;  "wherever  I 
am,  he  is  with  me,  and  I  can  tell  him  all  my 
wants."  Another:  "I  am  as  one  walking  upon 
a  smooth  sheet  of  ice,  and  obliged  with  every 
step  to  guard  against  falling.  He  must  uphold 
me,  and  my  heart  is  lifted  up  in  prayer  to  Him." 
The  day  following  a  sacramental  service,  at  which 
deep  emotion  was  manifested,  certain  communi- 
cants came  to  the  missionary,  one  of  whom,  Sarah, 
brought  all  the  metal  rings  with  which  she  had 
adorned  her  fingers,  and  wished  to  part  with 
them.  When  asked  the  reason,  she  answered: 
"I  will  have  nothing  now  to  please  me  but  only 
Jesus."  Lydia,  Louisa,  and  some  others  followed 
with  their  ornaments,  and  entirely  of  their  own 
accord,  the  missionaries  having  offered  no  criti- 
cism upon  their  dress.  And  at  Hopedale  (1861) 
is  the  widow  Sophia,  seventy  years  old,  who  has 
lost  the  use  of  her  feet ;  she  crawls  on  hands  and 
knees,  yet  is  always  cheerful,  rejoicing  in  the 
Lord,  and,  though  so  infirm,  cares  faithfully  for 
another  widow,  who  is  more  helpless  than  her- 
self.1 

"Have  any  of  the  rulers  or  of  the  Pharisees 

1  Periodical  Accounts,  XXIV,  266. 


LBCT.  VI.] 


REVIVALS.  241 


believed  on  him?"  The  very  first  instance  of 
baptism  in  Labrador  was  that  of  an  Angekok, 
Kingsmenguse  (1776).  Other  sorcerers  were  also 
brought  in.  One  such  noted  case  (1848),  was 
that  of  an  old  man,  named  Parksaut,  the  very 
Elymas  of  a  neighborhood  given  up  to  all  man- 
ner of  dark  deeds,  and  his  hands  stained  with 
the  blood  of  many  a  murder.  To  the  surprise 
of  all,  he  made  his  appearance  at  Hebron  —  fol- 
lowed afterwards  by  others  to  the  number  of 
eighty  or  more  —  avowed  his  purpose  of  turning 
to  the  Lord ;  and  the  result  justified  his  pro- 
fession. 

The  Eskimos,  reserved,  phlegmatic  and  with 
blunted  sensibilities,  are  perhaps  the  last  people 
among  whom  we  should  look  for  a  religious 
revival;  yet  this  Labrador  mission  has  enjoyed 
seasons  of  spiritual  quickening.  One  of  the 
earliest  and  most  clearly  defined  was  at  Hoffen- 
thal,  where  declension  had  been  previously  more 
marked  than  in  the  other  settlements,  where, 
indeed,  affairs  had  become  so  discouraging  that, 
even  thirty-three  years  after  the  commencement 
of  labor  there,  thoughts  of  abandoning  the  sta- 
tion were  entertained.  The  similar  season  of 
gracious  visitation  among  the  Indians  at  Cros- 
weeksung,  during  the  labors  of  David  Brainerd, 
was  equally  unlooked  for.1  As  Kohlmeister  was 

1  Edwards,  X,   235. 
10 


242  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.  vi. 

preaching  (1804)  from  the  words,  "The  Son  of 
man  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which 
was  lost,"  truth  touched  the  heart  of  a  wretched 
creature  so  degraded,  so  sunk  in  vice,  as  to  be 
shunned  by  her  own  countrywomen.  "  I  am  the 
very  worst  of  all,"  she  exclaimed ;  "  but,  if  He 
came  to  seek  the  lost,  even  I  can  be  saved."  She 
fled  earnestly  to  the  Saviour,  became  a  new  crea- 
ture in  Christ  Jesus,  and  could  testify :  "  I  felt 
a  singular  joy  and  delight  in  my  soul,  and  could 
not  help  weeping  so  much  that  I  forgot  myself, 
and  remained  sitting  in  church.  My  heart  has 
ever  since  been  fixed  upon  our  Saviour  alone, 
and  I  often  weep  for  him.  Now  I  know  truly 
what  you  mean  by  feeling  our  Saviour  near  and 
precious  to  the  soul,  and  experiencing  his  great 
love  to  sinners ;  and  that  it  is  not  enough  to  be 
baptized,  and  to  enjoy  other  privileges  in  the 
congregation,  but  that  every  one  ought  to  be  able 
to  say  for  himself,  *  M.y  Saviour  is  mine  ;  he  died 
for  my  sins ;  he  has  also  taken  away  my  sins,  and 
received  me  even  as  his  child.' "  In  every  hut, 
there  might  be  heard  the  voice  of  prayer  and 
praise ;  places  of  worship  were  thronged ;  and 
nearly  all  the  adults  began  to  seek  after  God. 
Some  of  the  children,  too,  were  awakened ;  they 
met  and  sang  hymns,  during  which  they  often 
burst  into  loud  weeping. 

In  the  midst  of  this  revival,  two  young  men 
from  Nain  arrived   at  Hoffenthal.     One  of  them 


IBCT.  vi.]  EEVIVALS.  243 

came  to  return  his  wife  to  her  mother,  in  order 
to  marry  another  more  inclined  to  join  him  in 
heathen  abominations.  Christian  friends  gath- 
ered around  him ;  his  own  mother  exclaiming, 
"  O  my  Lord  Jesus,  behold  this  my  child !  I  now 
give  him  up  to  thee.  Oh,  accept  of  him  and 
suffer  him  not  to  be  lost  forever !  "  He  was  con- 
victed of  sin ;  his  heart  was  changed ;  he  took 
back  his  repudiated  wife ;  and  the  young  man 
who  accompanied  him  also  became  a  Christian. 
Missionaries  afterwards  wrote  concerning  this 
station :  "  The  people  have  now,  both  in  the 
morning  and  at  evening,  prayer  and  singing  in 
all  the  families ;  and,  both  then  and  on  other 
occasions,  they  edify  each  other  in  a  manner  that 
moves  us  to  tears  of  gratitude.  In  short,  there 
is  at  present  a  small  congregation  of  believing 
Eskimos  at  Hopedale,  blooming  like  a  beautiful 
rose  ;  and,  as  all  their  happiness  is  founded  upon 
the  enjoyment  of  the  merits  of  Christ,  and  in 
contemplating  him  as  their  crucified  Redeemer, 
our  joy  is  no  more  mixed  with  the  fear  and 
anxiety  we  felt  formerly ;  but  we  rejoice  in  truth 
over  a  genuine  work  of  God."  The  spiritual 
movement,  begun  at  Hoffenthal,  extended  to 
Nain  and  to  Okak  (1805).  That  persons  consti- 
tutionally so  shy  and  reticent  as  the  Eskimos 
should  become  ready  to  confess  their  sins,  and 
to  speak  of  the  love  of  God  shed  abroad  in 
their  hearts,  could  not  fail  to  surprise  their  coun- 


244  MORAVIAN    MISSIONS.  [LKCT.VI. 

trymen.  and  to  delight  the  missionaries.  This 
season  marked  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the 
mission ;  the  happy  influences  continued  to  be 
felt  sensibly  for  years.  Nor  is  it  unworthy  of 
notice  that  this  blessed  visitation  followed,  in 
point  of  time,  immediately  upon  that  season  of 
refreshing  from  on  high  (1798-1803),  during 
which  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
churches  in  New  England  enjoyed  revivals. 

At  the  present  time  (1881),  the  number  of 
stations,  six,  is  the  same  as  in  Greenland,  though 
the  missionary  agents  are  twice  as  numerous  — 
thirty-nine  against  nineteen.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  members  are  fewer ;  there  being  four  hundred 
and  ninety,  while  there  are  one  thousand  three 
hundred  and  two  persons  in  charge.  Along 
the  coast,  and  a  little  in  the  interior,  there  are 
altogether  about  fifteen  hundred  Eskimos  now 
under  the  influence  of  that  mission.  To  the 
north  of  Hebron,  there  still  remain  a  few  heathen 
Eskimos,  some  of  whom  have  been  reported  as 
being  fierce  and  bloodthirsty.  It  was  said  that 
a  man  living  at  Ungava  Bay  murdered  and  de- 
voured seven  human  beings  in  one  year  (1863). 
To  the  south  of  Hoffenthal  are  a  few  more,  the 
women  having  chiefly  intermarried  with  fishermen 
of  various  nationalities ;  but  the  people  as  a  body 
have  become  Christian.  At  Zoar,  the  last  heathen 
of  that  neighborhood  received  baptism  in  1867. 
A  species  of  home  missionary  work  has  been  begun 


LKCT.VI.]  STATISTICS   AND    RESULTS.  245 

among  white  settlers  living  in  the  southern  part 
of  the  land,  where  half-breeds  are  able  to  read 
and  write,  the  reason  being  that  the  mothers, 
on  whom  instruction  devolves,  have  been  taught 
in  Moravian  schools. 

The  antecedents  of  this  people  were  most  un- 
promising, their  surroundings  are  peculiarly  dis- 
heartening, and,  by  the  necessities  of  their  con- 
dition, high  social  advancement  is  precluded. 
Position  dooms  them  inexorably  to  the  level  of 
a  low  civilization ;  and  yet,  unstable,  weak,  rude, 
though  they  are,  Christianity  has  effected  a  vast 
change  among  them.  It  is  of  comparatively 
small  moment  that  the  original  Eskimo  huts, 
with  windows  of  ice-slabs  or  seal-bladder,  have 
given  place  to  -houses  with  glass  windows,  an 
iron  stove  in  the  middle,  and  blankets  instead 
of  reindeer-skins  for  the  bed ;  that  the  people 
have  developed  a  creditable  taste  for  music,  learn- 
ing tunes  readily,  many  of  the  women  and  chil- 
dren possessing  sweet  voices ;  that  the  Eskimos 
succeed  as  draughtsmen,  while  our  Indians  draw 
like  children,  and  Polynesians  do  not  draw  at 
all.  Moral  elevation  is  the  main  thing.  At 
Okak,  there  is  an  Orphan  Asylum.  The  Week 
of  Prayer  is  now  observed  at  all  the  stations. 
Schools  kept  by  missionaries  are  maintained  at 
each  station,  and  all  that  could  reasonably  be 
expected  has  been  accomplished.  , 

Even  the  next  year  after  labor  was  begun  at 


246  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VI. 

Nain  (1772),  sailors  on  board  the  missionary  ship 
Amity  were  so  impressed  by  the  improvement  in 
the  behavior  of  the  Eskimos  as  to  exclaim  :  "  They 
do  not  look  like  the  old  robbers  and  murderers ; 
they  have  become  good  sheep  already."  Lieuten- 
ant Curtis,  who  was  sent  out  by  Commodore  Shuld- 
ham,  from  Newfoundland,  to  view  the  Brethren's 
settlement,  acknowledged  that,  though  he  started 
with  strong  prejudices  against  the  missionaries, 
he  was  greatly  surprised  at  the  improvement  of 
the  natives,  and  made  a  highly  favorable  report 
of  the  undertaking.  That  occurred  at  an  early 
stage  of  the  mission.  Half  a  century  afterward 
(1821),  a  British  man-of-war  anchored  in  the 
harbor  of  Nain,  the  captain,  Sir  William  Martin, 
having  been  instructed  by  the  Governor  of  New- 
foundland to  investigate  the  work  of  Moravian 
missionaries  in  Labrador.  So  favorably  impressed 
was  Sir  William  by  the  deportment  of  the  Chris- 
tian Eskimos,  that  the  same  ship  returned  the 
following  year  with  an  autograph  letter  from 
the  Governor,  couched  in  most  friendly  terms. 
Still  more  recently  (1849),  the  boat's  crew  of  a 
ship  belonging  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company, 
which  had  been  lost  in  the  ice,  was  driven  by 
the  wind  among  the  islands  near  Okak.  They 
expected  a  cruel  death  from  the  Eskimos,  who 
came  off  in  their  kayaks.  But  the  nine  emaciated 
men,  to  their  surprise,  were  welcomed,  and  kindly 
taken  on  shore.  Being  unable,  after  their  journey 


LECT.VI.]  STATISTICS    AND    KESTTLTS.  247 

of  eight  hundred  miles  in  a  boat,  to  walk,  they 
were  carried  to  the  mission-house  and  tenderly 
cared  for.  They  found  native  women  singing 
Christian  hymns  at  their  work,  and  glad  to  pre- 
pare for  them  such  food  as  was  on  hand.  These 
servants  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  who 
owed  their  preservation  to  missionary  influence, 
were  compelled  to  acknowledge  the  good  results 
with  tears  of  joy.  Similar  instances  have  oc- 
curred elsewhere.  A  New  England  whale-ship 
was  once  wrecked  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Her 
commander,  who  had  been  second  mate  of  a 
ship  that  foundered  there  some  years  before, 
recognized  a  neighboring  island  as  one  where 
he  had  seen  a  boat's  company  fall  into  the  hands 
of  cannibals.  He  and  his  comrades  are,  however, 
too  exhausted  and  emaciated  to  attempt  escape. 
They  creep  tremblingly  to  the  top  of  a  hill ;  the 
foremost  one  suddenly  springs  to  his  feet,  claps 
his  hands,  and  shouts  :  "  Safe  !  safe  !  safe  !  "  He 
has  discovered  a  church  in  the  midst  of  native 
huts ;  a  kind  hospitality  awaits  them.1  Mission- 
ary pioneers  are  preparing  the  way  for  similar 
surprises  all  round  the  world.2 


1  Pres.  For.  Miss.,  1853,  p.  197. 

2  It  can   hardly  be  necessary  to  state  that  the  interesting 
Labrador  mission,  established  a  few  years  since   on   Caribou 
Island,  and  still  conducted  by  Rev.  S.  P.  Butler,  of  Northamp- 
ton, in  this  State  —  Bonne  Esperance  being  now  the  headquar- 
ters—  has  an  entirely  different  field.    Mr.  Charles  C.  Carpenter, 


248  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [USCT.VI. 

The  present  and  the  preceding  lecture  have 
contemplated  subarctic  evangelization  as  carried 
on  by  Moravians  in  Labrador  and  Greenland,  two 
fields  most  uninviting  to  one  who  walks  only 
by  sight.  The  rigors  of  climate  and  the  absence 
of  outward  attractiveness  need  not  be  further 
dwelt  upon ;  but  we  would  never  forget  that  the 
very  frost-smoke,  which  to  those  unacquainted 
might  suggest  a  rising  temperature,  singes  the 
skin  of  one's  face  and  hands  as  effectively  as  fire 
itself;  that,  if  anything  will  banish  romance  from 
missionary  life,  it  is  to  find,  as  a  young  Moravian 
lady  found,  one  year  ago  (April,  1880),  on  land- 
ing in  Greenland,  that  her  first  step  ashore  was 
into  snow  up  to  the  knee  ;  that  a  preacher  in  the 
midst  of  his  sermon  is  liable  to  see  the  lamp  go 

having  made  a  trip  to  that  quarter  on  account  of  his  health 
(1856),  opened  a  correspondence  with  the  late  Dr.  Wilkes,  of 
Montreal,  through  which  the  Canadian  Foreign  Missionary  Soci- 
ety became  interested  in  the  religious  condition  of  the  fishermen 
—  English,  French  and  American  —  living  on  the  northern  coast 
of  the  Gulf  of  St  Lawrence,  or  visiting  those  waters.  Subse- 
quently (1800),  Mr.  Carpenter  was  ordained  as  missionary,  and, 
with  Mr.  Clary  and  Miss  Brodie,  began  Christian  work  on  the 
island  just  named.  The  locality  and  the  people  are  widely 
remote  from  the  sphere  of  Moravian  labors.  This  mission  is 
now  under  the  care  of  the  "  Ladies'  Committee  of  Zion  Church, 
Montreal."  The  English  "  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel "  has  two  or  three  stations  in  the  same  region  and  among 
the  same  class  of  persons.  Eskimos,  so  far  as  they  can  be  found 
in  those  parts,  are  mere  stragglers.  Some  of  the  settlers  have 
married  Eskimo  wives.  The  Methodists  of  Newfoundland  also 
have  attempted  something  in  that  quarter. 


LECT.  vi.]  HINDRANCES.  249 

out  because  the  oil  has  congealed  —  the  thermom- 
eter indicating  twenty,  thirty,  or  more  degrees 
below  zero — and  that  sometimes  numbers  of  his 
flock  are  in  such  straits  as  compel  them  to  feed 
on  seaweed  and  shell-fish,  or  to  eat  their  own 
tent-skins. 

Other  drawbacks  exist.  For  a  long  time  past, 
there  has  been  little  love  lost  on  the  Continent 
of  Europe  between  Germans  and  Danes.  It  is 
not  strange,  then,  that  national  prejudice  should 
manifest  itself  on  the  frigid  border  of  Greenland, 
where  one  of  the  nationalities  is  so  in  the  ascend- 
ancy, as  to  number  and  resources,  besides  rep- 
resenting the  home  government,  which  has  a 
monopoly  of  trade,  but  has  not  a  monopoly  of 
evangelistic  zeal.  The  Moravians  appear  to  have 
carried  themselves  very  discreetty  and  submis- 
sively, but  have  all  along  been  reminded  that 
they  are  aliens.  For  instance,  there  came  at  one 
time  (1856)  an  injunction  from  the  Danish  Board 
of  Trade,  forbidding  the  missionaries  at  Lichtenau 
and  Friedrichsthal  to  receive  as  inhabitants  any 
heathen  from  the  eastern  coast  who  might  apply 
for  that  privilege ;  also  prohibiting  re-admission 
to  any  families  who  might  leave  those  settle- 
ments, and  afterwards  apply  to  be  received  again. 
All  the  heathen  were  to  be  directed  to  Danish 
stations.  This  was  a  selfish  scheme  for  system- 
atically withdrawing  natives  from  the  Moravians. 
The  missionaries  submitted,  though  with  a  sor- 


250  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.  vi. 

rowful  heart;  but  the  iniquitous  rescript  was 
afterwards  revoked.  A  few  years  ago,  there  were 
some  connected  with  the  colonial  administration 
who  advocated  the  expulsion  of  Moravian  mis- 
sionaries from  Greenland.  Danish  publications 
have  decried  Moravian  labors,  and  have  pro- 
nounced the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into 
Greenlandic  a  useless  pastime.  So,  too,  in  Labra- 
dor, servants  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  and 
foreign  fishermen  have  often  been  a  great  hin- 
drance, especially  by  immoral  practices. 

In  both  countries,  there  may  have  been  a  slight 
mistake,  on   the  part  of  missionaries,  respecting 

I  the  amount  of  charitable  aid  afforded  to  natives. 
If  so,  it  was  participation  in  a  mistake  only  too 
common  elsewhere.  Few  points  in  evangelistic 
policy  require  more  discriminating  caution,  or  oft- 
ener  a  wise  reserve,  than  that  of  secular  assist- 
ance. One  of  the  early  lessons  to  be  inculcated 
is  the  duty  of  self-help  till  it  reach  self-support, 
and  then  pass  on  to  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  un- 
evangelized  elsewhere.  Otherwise  Christian  char- 
acter will  be  like  a  flaccid  muscle,  and  pupilage 
will  be  prolonged,  if  not  perpetuated.  Hardly 
anything  is  more  detrimental  to  religious  growth 
than  contentment  in  some  needless  eleemosynary 
habit.  The  Eskimos,  in  common  with  all  untu- 
tored tribes,  know  little  about  self-restraint  and 
wise  forethought.  The  presence  of  European 
traders  is  attended  by  injurious  consequences ;  for 


LECT.  vi.]  HINDRANCES.  251 

thereby  a  damaging  fondness  for  articles,  which 
to  them  are  mere  luxuries,  is  fostered.  Take  the 
single  one  of  coffee,  and  take  a  single  illustration : 
A  Greenlander,  not  long  since,  carried  his  supply 
of  blubber  to  a  Danish  tradesman,  and  brought 
home,  with  other  articles,  seven  pounds  of  coffee. 
He  at  once  invited  his  friends  to  a  repast;  and, 
though  the  number  was  not  large,  they  made  an 
end  of  the  whole  seven  pounds  at  one  sitting.  In  < 
consequence  of  an  adoption,  though  partial,  of 
European  food  and  dress,  together  with  other 
circumstances,  the  native  constitution  is  becom- 
ing enfeebled.1  Obtaining  credit  operates  badly, 
of  course  ;  and,  in  general,  the  more  intercourse 
with  foreigners,  the  worse  off  the  Greenlanders. 
Far  better  would  it  have  been  for  them  if,  in 
becoming  civilized  Christians,  they  had  not  pro- 
portionally ceased  to  be  Eskimos  in  their  style 
of  living.  Their  improvement  is  unequal ;  is  not 
well-balanced.  With  all  the  advancements  made 
in  some  directions,  culinary  practices  are  not  yet 
quite  what  one  might  wish.  For  example,  you 
may  see  a  woman  chew  a  piece  of  bacon  for  a 
while,  and  then  put  it  into  the  frying-pan  for  the 
general  benefit. 

There  has  been,  there  still  is,  want  of  compe- 
tent native  helpers.  Probably  the  Brethren,  like 

1  Few  Eskimos  now  live  to  the  age  of  fifty ;  a  man  of  sixty 
is  very  seldom  met  with.  Women  live  longer  than  men,  and 
widows  are  numerous. 


252  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.  vi. 

many  other  missionaries,  have  been  somewhat 
remiss  in  bringing  forward  men  to  be  catechists 
and  pastors.  Unpromising  and  unsatisfactory  as 
is  the  material,  still  it  doubtless  would  have  been 
well  if,  with  all  attendant  risks,  such  auxiliaries 
had,  at  an  earlier  day,  had  the  beneficial  discipline 
of  more  responsibility  put  upon  them,  and  of 
greater  trust  reposed  in  them.  Not  till  1850  was 
an  institution  for  training  native  assistants  estab- 
lished ;  it  opened  at  Lichtenau,  with  six  pupils, 
one  of  them,  Simeon,  a  descendant  of  Kaiarnak,  the 
first  convert.  A  course  of  study  for  six  winters 
was  marked  out.  But  the  pupils  have  to  earn  their 
own  livelihood  by  the  customarj'  Greenland  call- 
ings —  callings  which  differ  a  good  deal  from 
methods  of  self-support  among  our  theological 
students  —  and  do  not  have  opportunity  for  very 
complete  ministerial  equipment.  Relatively,  how- 
ever, it  is  sufficient.  This  school  is  for  the  South- 
ern District;  a  like  seminary  for  the  Northern 
District  was  opened  at  New  Herrnhut  in  1866, 
with  four  pupils. 

Coming,  as  we  have  so  recently  in  our  series 
of  visits,  from  the  Caribbean  Sea,  we  can  hardly 
avoid  noting  certain  contrasts.  I  do  not  now 
refer  to  the  extreme  dissimilarity  of  physical  fea- 
tures, but  to  a  difference  in  one  or  two  condi- 
tions of  missionary  experience.  While  a  dis- 
heartening mortality  has  prevailed  among  mission- 
aries in  the  American  tropical  missions,  in  these 


LKCT.VI.J  THE  MISSIONARIES.  253 

northern  regions  there  has  been  a  very  gratifying 
longevity.     Of  Brethren  employed  in  Greenland 

—  between  sixty  and  seventy  in  number,  during 
the  first  century  —  Frederick  Bonisch  labored  for 
thirty  years ;  six  others  were  thus  occupied  from 
forty   to   fifty  years  each,  and   one  for  fifty-two 
years.     In    Labrador   also  there  have  been  some 
prolonged   terms   of  service.1      We   must   linger 
a   moment  on   one   or   two   names.      There   was 
George  Kmoch,  belonging  by  birth  to  the  Sclavic 
(Wendish)  race,  a  plain  man,  who  passed  through 
various   spiritual   conflicts,  had  a  strong  impulse 
to  offer   himself  for   the   missionary  service,  and 
spent   thirty-four   years    in    Labrador.     He   died 
in  England  (1857),  aged  eighty-seven,  one  year 
older  than  John  Eliot,  his  last  words  being  nearly 
the  same  with  those  of  the  apostle  to  the  Indians 

—  "  Welcome  !  welcome !  "    Another  among  those 
self-denying  men  connected  with  the  mission,  was 
Benjamin  Gottlieb  Kohlmeister.      After  repeated 
solicitations,  he  began,  at  eighty-three,  a  written 
sketch  of  his  life  —  the  same  age  as  that  of  Lord 
Brougham  when  he  commenced  a  similar  record. 
He  was  of  Polish  birth,  but  belonged  to  a  reli- 
gious Protestant  family  of  humble  circumstances. 
Such   was   his   love   for   the   Holy  Scriptures  in 
childhood,  that,  when  a  fire  broke  out  on  a  street 


1  One  of  the  female  missionaries  lived  to  be  nearly  81 ;  the 
died  in  1861. 


254  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VI. 

where  they  were  living  at  "Warsaw,  instead  of 
caring  for  clothes  or  trinkets,  he  seized  the  large 
family  Bible,  and,  though  hardly  able  to  lift  it, 
carried  the  treasure  beyond  the  reach  of  danger. 
While  yet  a  youth,  he  came  under  deep  convic- 
tion of  sin,  and  despairingly  groaned  —  using  the 
same  words  as  Samuel  J.  Mills  in  similar  circum- 
stances — "  Oh  that  I  had  never  been  born ! " 
At  Herrnhut,  he  became  a  devout  man,  labored 
thirty-four  years  in  Labrador,  grateful  for  such 
a  privilege;  and  died  in  Silesia  (1874),  having 
reached  his  eighty-ninth  year.  What  greater  con- 
trast could  there  be  than  between  the  social 
condition  and  life  of  Benjamin  Kohlmeister,  the 
Moravian  mechanic,  always  poor,  never  conspicu- 
ous, spending  his  best  days  in  such  a  bleak, 
unfrequented  region,  and  a  contemporary  of  his, 
Prince  Talleyrand,  a  millionaire,  on  whom  highest 
honors  were  lavished,  the  companion  and  coun- 
selor of  kings!  There  is  only  one  greater  con- 
trast. They  were  at  a  yet  wider  remove  in 
character  and  disposition.  At  eighty-three,  look- 
ing back  upon  his  missionary  experience,  Kohl- 
meister writes :  "  That  the  Lord  has  counted  me, 
one  of  the  poorest  of  his  children,  worthy  to 
serve  him  in  weakness,  amongst  the  heathen,  is 
a  favor  for  which  I  hope  to  praise  him  through 
eternity."  Talleyrand,  born  about  the  same  time, 
penned  these  words :  "  Behold,  eighty-three  years 
have  passed  away  !  What  cares !  What  agitations ! 


LKCT.VI.]  MISSIONARY  NAVIGATION.  255 

What  anxieties !  What  ill-will !  What  sad  compli- 
cations !  And  all  without  other  result  except  great 
fatigue  of  body  and  mind,  a  profound  sentiment  of 
discouragement  for  the  future,  and  disgust  of  the 
past ! "  Cheerfulness  — yea,  joy  in  the  Lord — has 
characterized  this  whole  body  of  Brethren  during 
their  long  and  dreary  confinement  in  the  great 
prison  of  ice  and  snow.  No  privations  or  hard- 
ships are  severe  enough  to  make  them  complain. 
In  their  love  to  the  Saviour  and  to  the  souls 
of  men,  they  speak  even  regarding  a  year  of 
famine,  or  of  great  distress  in  any  form,  as  "  this 
happy  year." 

Reverting  to  navigation  in  equatorial  and  in 
northern  waters,  we  notice  a  contrast.  I  do  not 
ask  you  to  review  the  middle  passage  of  the 
slave-ships,  nor  to  linger  upon  atrocities  of  West- 
Indian  buccaneers ;  but  I  must  bespeak  your 
attention  to  the  sea-experience  of  Moravians  in 
their  hyperborean  enterprises.  It  was  indispensa- 
ble, from  the  first,  that  supplies  should  be  fur- 
nished to  the  Brethren  in  Labrador  at  least  once 
a  year;  and  it  was  desirable  that  barter  with 
the  natives  should  be  carried  on  through  them 
—  the  oil,  fish  and  furs  of  the  country  being 
exchanged  for  something  more  valuable  than 
beads  and  other  baubles,  of  which  the  Eskimos 
are  fond.  The  expense  of  that  mission  has  thus, 
to  a  considerable  extent,  been  met.  It  is  for  the 
spiritual  as  well  as  temporal  good  of  the  natives 


256  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VI. 

that  this  trade  should  be  in  the  hands  of  Mora- 
vians ;  industry  is  thus  stimulated.  The  "  Ship's 
Company,"  so  called,  undertook  at  the  outset  to 
secure  a  packet,  and  continued  to  do  so  till  1797, 
when  the  English  "Society  for  the  Furtherance 
of  the  Gospel" — which  was  started  in  London 
(1741)  by  Spangenberg,  resuscitated  in  1764, 
and  still  engaged  in  its  good  work  —  became 
responsible  for  this  as  well  as  for  other  items  of 
outlay. 

Only  one  voyage  of  the  Moravian  ship  from 
London  to  Labrador  and  back  is  undertaken  an- 
nually. The  journals  of  missionaries  show  that 
these  trips  have  been  attended  by  the  fiercest 
storms  and  the  most  imminent  perils.  Even  at 
a  favorable  season  of  the  3rear,  drift-ice  sometimes 
extends  full  two  hundred  miles  from  the  land 
outward.  One  summer  (1816),  it  was  found  im- 
possible for  the  ship  to  reach  Hoffenthal;  the 
next  season  she  was  held  fast  four  weeks  in 
the  ice,  and,  at  another  time  (1853),  was  able  to 
reach  only  one  of  the  four  stations.  Most  sig- 
nally has  the  preserving  hand  of  Providence 
been  interposed  now  for  more  than  a  century. 
Admiral  Lord  Gambier,  Lieutenant-Go vernor  of 
Newfoundland,  and  well  acquainted  with  navi- 
gation in  the  North  Atlantic,  remarked  repeat- 
edly, that  he  considered  the  preservation  of  the 
Labrador  ship  during  so  long  a  course  of  years 
as  the  most  remarkable  occurrence  in  maritime 


LKCT.VI.]  THE  HARMONY.  257 

history.  This  had  become  so  well  recognized 
that  the  Society's  vessel  is  insured  by  the  under- 
writers at  Lloyds',  year  after  year,  at  a  premium 
considerably  less  than  what  is  charged  for  vessels 
bound  to  other  portions  of  British-  North  America, 
including  the  territory  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany. It  is  gratifying  to  light  upon  the  record 
of  a  safe-conduct  given  to  "  The  G-ood  Intent, 
Captain  Francis  Mugford,  Master,"  signed  at 
Passy,  1779,  by  "  Benjamin  Franklin,  Minister 
Plenipotentiary  from  the  United  States  at  the 
Court  of  France." 

No  magnificent  packet-ship,  no  man-of-war  be- 
longing to  the  British  navy  that  I  have  had 
opportunity  to  visit,  ever  interested  me  so  much 
as  the  Harmony  —  the  fourth  Moravian  packet 
which  has  borne  that  name  —  then  lying  at  the 
East-Indian  dock  in  London.  Her  voyage  last 
year  (1881)  was  the  one  hundred  and  twelfth  in 
the  series.  Her  preservation  for  so  long  a  time, 
and  in  the  midst  of  such  exceptional  exposures, 
will  appear  all  the  more  remarkable  when  it  is 
remembered  that,  in  the  course  of  1881,  more 
than  two  thousand  (2,039)  shipwrecks  occurred 
throughout  the  world,  involving  a  loss  of  more 
than  four  thousand  (4,134)  lives,  and  an  esti- 
mated property  loss  of  more  than  a  billion  of 
dollars  ($1,400,000,000).  Not  the  size  or  build 
of  the  good  ship  Harmony,  but  her  service,  is  her 
charm.  She  is  the  living  link  between  warm 
17 


258  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS. 

hearts  in  England  and  humble  Christian  exiles 
in  Labrador.  The  figure-head  represents  an  angel 
with  a  trumpet,  and  the  scroll  bears  the  words, 
"  Glory  to  God :  Peace  on  earth."  At  the  cen- 
tenary (1841)  of  the  "Society  for  the  Furtherance 
of  the  Gospel,"  to  which  the  Harmony  belongs, 
James  Montgomery,  the  Moravian  poet,  sang : l 

"  Thither,  while  to  and  fro  she  steers, 

Still  guide  our  annual  bark, 
By  night  and  day,  through  hopes  and  fears, 

While  lonely  is  the  Ark ; 
Along  her  single  track  she  braves 
Gulfs,  whirlpools,  icebergs,  winds  and  waves, 

To  waft  glad  tidings  to  the  shore 

Of  longing  Labrador. 


1  The  Moravian  vessels,  nine  in  all  thus  far,  and  having  had 
seven  captains,  have  been  known  under  different  names ;  as, 
Jersey  Packet,  The  Amity,  The  Good  Intent,  The  Resolution,  and 
The  Harmony,  which  last  has  been  borne  by  four.  During  times 
of  war  between  England  and  France,  one  after  another  of  the 
vessels  has  been  exposed  to  privateers.  We  are  reminded  of 
the  capture  of  the  first  ship  of  the  London  Missionary  Society, 
the  Duff,  by  a  French  privateer  (1800) ;  and  of  the  succession 
of  vessels  owned  by  that  Society,  The  Haweis,  The  Endeavor, 
The  Messenger  of  Peace,  The  Camden,  and,  last  and  largest  of 
all,  one  having  a  memorable  history  and  bearing  a  memorable 
name,  The  John  Williams.  Nor  do  we  forget  The  Southern  Cross 
in  the  service  of  the  "Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel,"  nor  yet  the  Morning  Star,  which,  on  first  arriving 
at  Honolulu,  was  greeted  with  a  procession  of  two  thousand 
children,  and  with  religious  services  and  festivities.  See  Mis- 
sionary Ships  Connected  with  the  London  Missionary  Society.  By 
E.  Prout.  London,  1805.  Story  of  the  Morning  Star.  By  Hiram 
Bingham,  Jr.  Boston,  1866. 


LKCT.VI.I  THE  ESKIMO  FUTTJKE.  259 

"  How  welcome  to  the  watcher's  eye, 

From  morn  till  even  fixed, 
The  first  faint  speck  that  shows  her  nigh, 

Where  surge  and  sky  are  mixed ! 
Till,  looming  large  and  larger  yet, 
With  bounding  prow  and  sails  full  set, 
She  speeds  to  anchor  on  the  shore 
Of  joyful  Labrador." 

I 

But  we  must  not  leave  these  high  latitudes 
without  first  glancing  at  their  missionary  future. 
Upon  first  thought,  it  seems  somewhat  like  the 
prospect  from  one  of  those  ice-hills  far  on  toward 
the  Polar  Ocean,  rugged  and  dreary.  Disease 
now  and  then  decimates  the  population  ;  ardent 
spirits  supplement  the  deadly  work.  Two  hun- 
dred years  ago,  there  may  have  been  thirty  thou- 
sand Eskimos  in  Greenland  alone ;  there  are  now 
not  more  than  one  third  of  that  number.  While, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  heathen  on  the  south- 
eastern coast,  they  have  become  a  nominally 
Christian  people,  as  is  the  case  in  Labrador,  their 
religious  character  is  not  stalwart.  Few  of  them 
have  any  adequate  ideas  in  regard  to  the  training 
of  children  ;  many  of  them  show  a  sad  indiffer- 
ence to  divine  things.  Too  many  of  them  seem 
to  think  that,  if  one  meets  death  without  alarm  — 
whether  such  quietude  results  from  medicine  or 
disease  or  otherwise  —  it  must  be  well  with  him 
hereafter.  But  is  that  a  Polar  peculiarity  ?  You 
may  today  hear  pious  Eskimos  giving  thanks  to 
God  for  the  supplies  of  his  providence  and  grace . 


260  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.VI. 

"  We  have  no  want ;  our  lamps  burn  ;  we  are  not 
yet  extinguished."  With  all  that  is  dreary  in  the 
long  Arctic  night  of  the  past,  there  may  now  be 
seen  a  beautiful  ice-blink  in  the  moral  firmament 
of  the  North  —  the  blink  a  peculiar  brightness 
which  assumes  an  arch-like  form  —  through  which 
is  opened  a  vista  into  Paradise.  Eskimo  barbar- 
ism is  a  thing  of  the  past ;  ferocity  and  violence 
are  no  longer  to  be  feared.  Less  than  a  century 
and  a  half  ago  (1740),  a  Dutch  brig  was  seized 
by  the  natives  at  the  port  of  Disco,  and  the  whole 
crew  murdered.  Two  years  later,  the  seamen  of 
another  vessel,  that  had  stranded,  met  with  the 
same  fate.  But  for  the  last  hundred  years  —  so 
Dr.  Kane  affirms  — "  Greenland  has  been  safer 
for  the  wrecked  mariner  than  many  parts  of  our 
coast ;  hospitality  is  the  universal  characteristic." 
Time  was  (1763)  when  Eskimo  pirates,  on  the 
Labrador  coast  also,  so  infested  the  Straits  of 
Belisle  that  it  was  unsafe  for  a  fishing-vessel 
to  enter  singly,  and  no  European  would  dare  to 
pass  a  night  among  the  natives.  Now,  how 
changed !  And  how  much  does  Arctic  naviga- 
tion owe  to  Arctic  evangelization !  Theft  is  rare  ; 
lock  or  bolt  is  not  needed.  Formerly  the  Eski- 
mos practiced  the  greatest  cruelties  upon  their 
own  kindred  who  became  dependent ;  the  aged, 
the  infirm  and  widows  being  often  put  to  death. 
Now  a  magazine  is  opened,  in  which  the  once 
hard-hearted  and  still  improvident  natives  are 


LECT.  vi.]  THE  ESKIMO  FUTURE.  261 

encouraged  to  deposit  their  superfluous  stores, 
and  to  devote  one  tenth  to  widows  and  orphans. 
In  general,  it  may  be  said,  with  reference  to  gross- 
est vices  and  revolting  superstitions,  as  truly  as 
in  the  case  of  the  ancient  Corinthians :  "  And 
such  were  some  of  you :  but  ye  are  washed ;  but 
ye  are  sanctified ;  but  ye  are  justified  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  by  the  Spirit  of  our  God." 
Sacred  hymns  may  be  heard  from  the  lips  of 
oarsmen,  as  they  glide  among  rocks  and  masses 
of  floating  ice.  At  New  Herrnhut,  a  bell,  the 
gift  of  the  station  Umanak,  bears  the  motto : 
"  Come,  for  all  things  are  ready,"  and  that  sweet 
invitation  mingles  with  the  tempest  as  it  howls 
around  the  turfed  dwelling  and  about  the  rude 
sanctuary.  Let  the  sound  be  wafted  westward 
across  Davis'  Straits,  and  onward  to  Behring's 
Straits. 

The  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of 
the  Greenland  mission  is  at  hand  (1883).  Let 
it  be  kept  in  mind  by  the  Moravian  church,  and 
the  whole  church  of  Christ,  that  all  the  tribes 
which  skirt  the  Polar  Sea,  on  both  continents, 
are  to  be  evangelized.  It  should  be  done,  it  may 
be  done,  chiefly  by  their  own  kinsmen.  Existing 
Eskimo  converts  need  the  elevating  and  inspirit- 
ing influence  of  foreign  evangelization.  They 
must  enter  upon  it,  gather  physical  and  spiritual 
nerve  thereby,  or  they  will  die  out.  That  conse- 
cration of  two  young  men  —  Matthew  Stach  and 


262  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VI 

Frederick  Bb'nisch,  as  they  kneeled  for  prayer  in 
a  grove  at  Herrnhut,  their  hearts  drawn  toward 
Greenland,  Anno  Domini  seventeen  hundred  and 
thirty-one — meant,  we  think,  complete  arctic  evan- 
gelization; it  meant  the  church-bell  and  church 
ordinances,  and  millennial  glory,  all  round  the 
frozen  north  of  Asia,  as  well  as  America.  While 
we  here  may  have  no  personal  agency  in  that 
branch  of  evangelistic  work,  let  us  have  a  share 
in  cries  to  Heaven  for  the  blessed  consumma- 
tion.1 

Captain  Franklin,  in  the  narrative  of  his  second 
expedition,  records  that  some  of  the  elderly  na- 
tives said :  "  We  believe  there  is  a  Great  Spirit, 
who  created  everything,  both  us  and  the  world 
for  our  use.  We  suppose  that  he  dwells  in  the 
lands  from  whence  the  white  people  come,  that 
he  is  kind  to  the  inhabitants  of  those  lands,,  and 
that  there  are  people  there  who  never  die;  the 
winds  that  blow  from  that  quarter  [south]  are 
always  warm.  He  does  not  know  of  the  wretched 


1  An  Eskimo  Christian  once  said:  "When,  in  summer,  we 
carry  a  light" — usually  dry  moss,  soaked  with  oil  —  "from  one 
tent  to  another,  from  which  burning  flakes  often  fall  to  the 
ground,  they  quickly  set  the  dry  grass  on  fire.  Thus,  when  our 
Saviour  came  upon  earth,  he  brought  fire  along  with  him,  and 
scattered  it  around  among  men.  And  now  he  sends  his  ser- 
vants forth  into  all  the  world,  even  unto  us,  with  bis  Word ; 
this  they  have  scattered  amongst  us,  and  it  has  enkindled  and 
put  life  into  our  hearts,  so  that  we  no  longer  walk  in  darkness 
as  do  others." 


LBCT.VIO  THE  ESKIMO  FUTUKE.  263 

state  of  our  island,  nor  of  the  pitiful  condition 
in  which  we  are."  Ah,  benighted  brothers  of 
the  North !  He  does  know,  and  we  know ;  and 
annually  at  least,  when  the  flotillas  of  ice  come 
down  from  your  wretched  region,  we  will  accept 
their  presence  as  an  appeal  to  pour  out  our  hearts 
in  your  behalf. 


LECTURE  VII. 

MISSIONS  TO  NORTH-AMERICAN 
INDIANS. 


MISSIONS    TO    NORTH-AMERICAN 
INDIANS. 


WE  will  set  ourselves  back  three  hundred  years 
in  the  history  of  this  continent.  No  French  set- 
tlement is  to  be  found  in  Canada  or  Acadia, 
and  no  English  settlement  in  New  England  or 
Virginia ;  a  foothold  has  not  been  secured  by 
the  Dutch  on  Manhattan  Island,  nor  by  the  Span- 
iards in  Florida.  From  the  Atlantic  westward 
there  stretches  a  vast  wilderness,  with  forests 
unbroken  save  by  noble  streams  and  lakes.  In 
those  forests,  along  those  watercourses,  and 
around  those  lakes,  no  Caucasian  white  men,  no 
African  black  men,  are  to  be  found ;  but  only  a 
copper-colored  race — a  race  differing  materially 
from  Eskimos  who  inhabit  the  subarctic  regions. 
Poetry  and  romance  have  pictured  the  earlier 
character  of  the  red  man  in  colors  quite  untrue 
to  the  original.1 

1  Poetry  has  sometimes  been  not  less  at  fault  in  regard  to 
the  Indian's  surroundings.  Campbell,  in  his  Gertrude  of  Wyoming, 
depicts  the  Oneidas  of  Western  New  York  as  hunting  the  alli- 
gator and  condor.  The  latter  is  to  be  found  no  nearer  than 
among  the  Andes  of  South  America. 

(267) 


268  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.VJI. 

Casting  an  eye  over  the  wide  domain  of  Amer- 
ica, North  and  South,  we  behold  a  race  with  sub- 
stantially the  same  physical  characteristics,  from 
present  British  Possessions,  through  all  varieties 
of  climate,  to  Patagonia.  Tribal  peculiarities  will 
be  noticed,  yet  everywhere  a  strong  general  simi- 
larity. We  will  limit  our  view,  however,  to  the 
territory  lying  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi. We  here  see  a  man  erect ;  hands  and 
feet  small ;  skin  soft  to  the  touch ;  hair  straight, 
black,  devoid  of  lustre,  coarse,  approaching  to 
that  of  a  horse's  mane ;  eyes  dark  and  deep-set..; 
cheek  bones  high;  countenance  hard  and  cold. 
His  senses  are  acute  ;  he  is  swift  of  foot,  and  free 
from  personal  defect  or  deformity.  Hunting  and 
fishing  yield  him  chief  subsistence ;  he  has  never 
domesticated  an  animal  for  the  sake  of  milk. 
Here  and  there,  the  soil  is  tilled,  though  by 
woman.  She  alone  plants,  reaps,  cooks,  builds, 
and  is  the  universal  drudge,  the  beast  of  burden. 
The  Indian  himself,  proud,  lordly,  lazy,  "  unspeak- 
ably indolent  and  slothful,"  says  David  Brainerd, 
disdains  service.  He  is  improvident  and  reckless. 
This  haughty  idler  —  I  speak  of  the  Indian  in 
his  aboriginal  state  —  has  no  fine  feelings,  no  gen- 
uine cheerfulness,  no  sense  of  the  comic,  which 
is  so  abundant  among  Africans ;  he  is  impassive, 
and  hence  in  the  wigwam  there  are  few  bick- 
erings. Once  roused,  his  joy  becomes  a  frenzy, 
and  allies  itself  with  passions  and  associations 


MCT.VII.]  ABORIGINES.  269 

that  are  maniacal.  He  is  jealous,  envious,  and 
to  the  last  degree  vindictive,  never  forgiving  an 
injury.  Of  dissembling  he  is  a  great  master; 
but  the  secret  of  that  art  is  the  inspiration  of 
deep  revenge.  Genuine  courage  he  has  not ;  he 
is  a  creature  of  stratagems;  stealth  and  ambush 
are  his  forte.  Pity  has  no  place  in  his  heart ;  the 
tomahawk  makes  no  discrimination  between  the 
strong  arm  of  a  foe  and  the  helplessness  of  old 
age  or  of  infancy.  Under  privations  and  suffer- 
ings, the  red  man  exhibits  intrepidity — an  intre- 
pidity, however,  due  to  indomitable  pride,  and 
to  a  stern  rigidity  of  nature,  rather  than  to  any- 
thing truly  heroic.  All  his  education,  all  tradi- 
tions, fortify  him  for  bidding  grim  defiance  to  his 
foes.  The  noble  Indian,  whether  of  earlier  or  later 
times,  is,  for  the  most  part,  a  myth.  Quick  to 
perceive,  the  red  man  is  sluggish  and  inapt  as  a 
reasoner.  His  deliberateness  in  counsel  seems  to 
be  due  more  to  the  fact  that  time  is  of  no  value 
to  him,  and  that  he  has  mastered  the  mock  wis- 
dom of  dilatoriness,  than  to  any  habit  of  dispas- 
sionate reflection,  or  deference  to  the  opinions 
of  others.  He  is  proverbially  taciturn.  His  ora- 
tory, when  he  attempts  it,  is  pompous,  usually 
mere  magniloquence,  marked  by  a  high  key  in 
delivery,  and  by  an  abundant  imagery,  sometimes 
beautiful,  now  and  then  pathetic  and  impressive. 
Rude  and  meagre  pictorial  devices  form  his  near- 
est approach  to  culture. 


270  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VII. 

As  to  their  languages,  it  is  a  striking  fact  that 
American  aborigines,  Eskimos  included,  from  the 
Arctic  Ocean  to  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  how- 
ever various  their  vocabularies,  have,  so  far  as  is 
known,  but  one  type  of  speech,  the  Otomi  of 
Mexico  excepted.  It  is  estimated  that,  at  the 
present  time,  the  Indians  on  these  two  continents, 
North  and  South  America,  speak  between  four 
and  five  hundred  distinct  languages;  while  the 
dialects '  employed  number,  perhaps,  two  thou- 
sand. Here  is  an  astonishing  diversity  as  to  sub- 
stance, amidst  similarity  of  structure.  Words 
are  often  a  heap  of  abraided  syllables,  fifteen  or 
twenty  in  number,  a  single  term  sometimes  con- 
stituting a  sentence  by  itself.  The  largest  num- 
ber of  ideas  can  be  expressed  in  the  smallest 
number  of  words  —  all  the  complex  modifications 
of  subject  and  object,  object  and  action,  being 
combined.  We  are  reminded  that  Cotton  Mather, 
speaking  of  the  Indian  language,  which  John 
Eliot  reduced  to  writing,  says  of  the  words : 
"One  would  think  they  had  been  growing  ever 
since  Babel  unto  the  dimensions  to  which  they 
are  now  extended."  So  characteristic  and  vital 
is  this  feature  of  aggregation,  that  seldom  does 
a  word  stand  by  itself,  expressing  an  abstract 
idea ;  every  word  must  usually  have  something 
associated  with  it  by  combination,  as  "  my  house," 

1  A.  H.  Keane  in  Bates's  Central  and  South  America,  243. 


LKCT.  vu.]  LANGUAGES.  271 

never  "house"  alone.  No  substantive  verb,  no  in- 
finitives are  found,  yet  verbs  predominate.  There 
is  an  almost  limitless  power  of  combining,  so  that 
great  affluence  of  words  exists,  and,  with  flexibil- 
ity, an  unusual  regularity.  Whatever  the  pov- 
erty of  ideas  among  Indian  nations,  their  lan- 
guages are  rich  in  forms  and  terms.  There  was 
no  literature  to  give  permanency  to  language. 
Neighboring  tribes  often  differ  widely  in  their 
methods  of  speech ;  the  Mohegans,  for  instance, 
using  a  profusion  of  labials,  but  the  Mohawks 
none.  The  native  languages  have  been  charac- 
terized as  polysynthetic,  and  this  feature  is  but  a 
reflex  of  the  Indian  mind,  which  does  not  analyze 
and  discriminate,  but  views  things  only  in  the 
gross.  Neither  habit  nor  language  favors  abstrac- 
tion. 

The  whole  aboriginal  population  on  that  terri- 
tory east  of  the  Mississippi,  which  now  belongs 
to  the  United  States,  probably  did  not  equal  the 
present  number  of  inhabitants  in  any  one  of  eight 
different  cities  within  the  same  limits  —  two  hun- 
dred thousand ; '  that  population,  too,  was  distrib- 
uted into  numerous  tribes,  and  most  of  the  tribes 
into  clans.  Individual  independence  is  the  red 


1  The  whole  number  in  North  America  at  the  present  time 
does  not  equal  1,000,000 ;  the  whole  number  in  the  United 
States,  both  east  and  west  of  the  Mississippi,  is  less  than 
275,000. 


272  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.VH. 

man's  boast,  the  chase  his  delight,  war  his  glory. 
Tillage  is  of  the  rudest  sort ;  flocks  and  herds 
there  are  none.  Hunter-life  everywhere  forbids 
the  gathering  into  populous  settlements.  These 
unsocial  stoics  of  the  wigwam,  these  alternately 
phlegmatic  and,  fierce  denizens  of  the  forest,  are 
the  Bedouin  of  the  New  World. 

Before  becoming  acquainted  with  Europeans,  it 
does  not  appear  that  the  men  of  the  woods  had  any 
well-defined  idea  of  a  Supreme  Being.  Their  lan- 
guages had  no  word  for  "  God,"  for  "holiness,"  for 
"justice,"  or  "thankfulness."  Were  they  profane? 
Nay,  for  terms  were  wanting  with  which  to  be 
guilty  of  profaneness.  Nature  seemed  to  them 
vaguely  peopled  by  inferior  divinities  —  Manitous 
—  no  one  of  which  was  an  object  of  love  or  of 
pleasing  reverence,  but  all  rather  to  be  dreaded, 
and  needing,  on  special  occasions,  to  be  propi- 
tiated. Charms  were  in  use,  dreams  much  ob- 
served. Their  powwows,  the  sheerest  charlatans, 
were  at  once  priests,  physicians  and  conjurers; 
and  their  whole  religion  a  system  of  sorcery  based 
upon  superstitious  fears.  Their  highest  concep- 
tion of  a  future  state  was  a  Teproduction  of 
the  present  amidst  "  happy  hunting-grounds "  in 
some  region  remote  and  ill-defined.  Immortality 
of  the  soul  was  sometimes  distinctly  affirmed : " 
"  We  Indians  cannot  die  eternally ;  even  Indian 

1  Loskiel  (Latrobe's),  36. 


LKCT.VII.]  RELIGION.  273 

corn  buried  in  the  ground  is  vivified  and  rises 
again."  Such  substantially  were  the  American 
aborigines,  and  more  especially  within  the  limits 
occupied  or  claimed  by  British  colonists. 

Sad  indeed  is  it  to  contemplate  such  a  people, 
spreading  over  two  continents,  for  weary  centuries 
maintaining  petty  warfare,  like  true  sons  of  Ish- 
mael,  and,  to  some  extent  it  would  seem,  deteriorat- 
ing rather  than  improving.  "The  way  of  peace 
they  had  not  known."  Did  some  guilty  infatua- 
tion lead  them  hither  ?  Was  it  for  special  crimes 
that  they  were  driven  from  the  earlier  seats  of 
mankind,  and  from  all  possible  reach  of  apostolic 
enterprise?  Why  were  they  allowed  to  remain 
for  fifteen  centuries  isolated  from  the  Christian 
world  ?  '  With  their  dark  and  mysterious  ante- 
cedents we  can  never  become  acquainted ;  the 
secrets  of  an  all-wise  Providence  must  remain 
forever  concealed. 

From  the  time  that  this  people  became  known 
in  Europe,  some  thoughtful  minds  were  impressed 
with  the  importance  of  communicating  to  them 
the  Christian  religion.  Roman  Catholic  methods 
and  enterprise  in  that  direction,  proceeding  from 


1  Chapter  forty-eight  of  Fabricius's  Lux  Evangelii  is  devoted 
to  the  subject :  De  America  —  Num  in  illam  quoque  Apostoli  peniira~ 
verint.  Apostolos  etiam  penetrasse  in  American  multi  contendunt  ex 
Proplieticarnm  prcedictionum,  ex  mandati  Christi,  et  testimoniorum 
Apostolicorum  universalitate  yenerali  sine  exceptione  ad  totum  qui  sub 
ccelo  est  terrarum  orbem  et  universum  genus  humanum  pertinente.  763. 

18 


274  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.  vn. 

France  and  Spain,  we  need  not  now  consider. 
The  story  of  French  missions  among  the  Abenakis, 
the  Hurons,  the  Iroquois,  and  other  tribes,  in  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  is  a  story  of 
heroism  and  of  rare  privations.  The  early  settle- 
ments of  our  fathers  in  New  England  were  not 
without  a  distinctive  missionary  element.  That 
was  avowed  at  the  time ;  it  was  incorporated  into 
early  charters ;  it  found  expression  in  seasonable 
efforts  to  Christianize  the  natives.  Legislative 
action  was  had  at  Plymouth  (1636)  and  at  Boston 
(1646)  with  reference  to  evangelizing  the  Indians ; 
and  it  must  always  be  acknowledged  as  peculiarly 
significant  that  the  Massachusetts  colony  should 
have  adopted  for  its  seal  the  device  of  an  Indian 
with  this  legend  on  a  scroll:  "Come  over  and 
help  us."  "The  General  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts," says  Dr.  Palfrey,  "  was  the  first  missionary 
society  in  Protestant  Christendom."  The  labors 
of  John  Eliot,  begun  just  before  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  are  known  throughout  the 
Protestant  world.  Thomas  Mayhew  was  already 
at  work  on  Martha's  Vineyard  when  Eliot  began 
his  work  (1646)  ;  and  the  family  of  Mayhews  did 
not  fail  for  five  generations  in  their  uninterrupted 
line  of  similar  Christian  effort  till  within  the  pres- 
ent century  (1806).  Other  honored  names  be- 
long to  the  earlier  period.  Thirty  years  after  the 
"  Apostle  to  the  Indians  "  entered  on  his  mission- 
ary work,  twenty-four  regular  congregations  had 


LBCT.VH.]  EAELY  MISSIONS.  275 

been  gathered  in  Massachusetts,  with  the  same 
number  of  native  preachers  (1675) ;  fifty  years 
from  the  same  date  (1696)  there  were  thirty  In- 
dian churches,  in  some  of  which  a  native  pastor- 
ate had  been  established,  and  three  fourths  of  the 
whole  Indian  population  (3,000  out  of  4,168)  were 
accounted  Christians.  Meanwhile  "  The  Society 
for  Propagating  the  Gospel  in  New  England  "  was 
incorporated  in  Old  England  (1649)  ;  and,  just 
sixty  years  later  (1709),  the  "  Society  in  Scotland 
for  Propagating  Christian  Knowledge."  At  the 
opening  of  the  last  century  (1700),  thirteen  mis- 
sionaries, supported  by  government,  might  be  seen 
laboring  in  the  English  colonies,  and  others  not 
thus  supported  were  similarly  engaged.  In  Rhode 
Island,  but  more  especially  in  Connecticut,  a  meas- 
ure of  success,  though  less  than  in  Massachusetts, 
attended  such  efforts.  The  eastern  part  of  Long 
Island  was  the  scene  of  Horton's  labors.  John 
Sergeant  left  a  tutorship  in  Yale  College  (1734) 
to  collect  roving  Mohegans  into  a  Christian  settle- 
ment at  Stockbridge,  Massachusetts,  where  he  was 
succeeded  by  the  immortal  Edwards  in  a  service 
of  six  years.  Time  fails  to  speak,  in  this  connec- 
tion, of  what  was  effected  by  David  Brainerd  and 
his  brother  John ;  by  Eleazer  Wheelock,  through 
the  "  Charity  School;"  by  Samuel  Kirkland,  among 
the  Oneidas  (1764-1808);  and  by  various  denomi- 
national missions  of  the  present  century,  in  behalf 
of  tribes  chiefly  outside  of  that  geographical  field 


276    x  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.  VH. 

to  which,  for  the  most  part,  Moravian  zeal  devoted 
itself. 

The  year  1734  was,  for  that  period,  one  of  note 
in  the  missionary  world.  It  was  the  year  in  which 
a  new  station  in  Greenland,  called  Christian's 
Hope,  was  founded.  A  reinforcement  went  out 
from  Denmark  to  establish  a  Christian  colony  at 
Disco  Bay ;  fourteen  Moravian  brethren  and  sis- 
ters, designated  to  St.  Croix,  arrived  in  the  West 
Indies ;  and  John  Sergeant,  as  just  stated,  began 
his  labors  among  the  Stockbridge  Indians.  It 
was  also  the  date  of  the  first  movement  from 
Herrnhut  in  behalf  of  the  red  man.  The  Eng- 
lish trustees  offered  to  Count  Zinzendorf  a  tract 
of  land  in  the  province  of  Georgia;  and  the  hope 
arose  in  his  mind  that  access  might  thus  be 
obtained  to  the  Creeks,  Chickasaws  and  Chero- 
kees.  Through  the  negotiation  of  Bishop  Span- 
genberg  in  London,  General  Oglethorpe  secured 
pecuniary  aid ;  and  the  use  of  houses  and  land 
in  Savannah  was  granted,  till  a  tract  on  the 
river  Ogeechee  could  be  cleared.  The  first  com- 
pany of  United  Brethren,  who  started  from 
Herrnhut  under  the  conduct  of  John  Tb'ltschig 
and  Anthony  Seiffart,  and,  accompanied  by  Span- 
genberg,  arrived  in  Georgia  in  the  spring  of  1735 ; 
and  an  expedition  of  that  kind  was  then  equiva- 
lent to  a  voyage  round  the  world  in  our  day. 
Such  was  the  first  company  from  any  quarter 
that  reached  the  shores  of  America  with  the 


LECT.vn.1  MORAVIANS  IN  GEOEGIA.  277 

express  and  leading  object  of  evangelizing  na- 
tives. On  the  part  of  sundry  others,  that  had 
been,  and  continued  to  be,  an  object,  yet  a  sub- 
ordinate object.  It  should  stand  out  conspicu- 
ously in  the  annals  of  Christ's  church,  that,  from 
the  heart  of  Germany,  from  a  community  so 
small  and  so  recently  gathered,  there  might  be 
seen  a  band  of  men  and  women,  a  century  and  a 
half  ago,  finding  their  way  to  the  seaboard,  and 
thence  across  the  Atlantic,  on  such  a  missionary 
errand.  A  larger  company,  under  the  lead  of 
David  Nitschmann,  joined  them.  Labor  was  be- 
gun among  Creek  Indians  on  the  island  Irene, 
five  miles  up  the  Savannah  River,  and  their  con- 
fidence secured.  But,  when  the  Spaniards  en- 
deavored to  drive  out  the  English  colony  from 
Georgia,  the  Moravians  were  called  upon  to  bear 
arms.  Military  service  was  contrary  to  their 
principles  —  principles  which  in  London  they  dis- 
tinctly avowed,  and  in  view  of  which  exemption 
had  been  granted.  Their  situation  becoming 
extremely  uncomfortable  on  that  account,  they 
withdrew  to  Pennsylvania  (1738  and  1739)  ;  and 
thus,  after  three  years,  this  incipient  mission  was 
suspended. 

Spangenberg,  having  visited  Pennsylvania,  re- 
turned to  Herrnhut  (1739),  and  his  representa- 
tions concerning  the  Indians  made  such  an  im- 
pression that  several  of  the  Brethren  resolved 
to  hold  themselves  ready  for  evangelistic  ser- 


278  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LBCT.VH. 

vice  among  those  savage  heathens,  and  Christian 
Henry  Rauch  led  the  way.  The  instructions 
given  him  are  worth  remembering :  "  Not  in  any 
wise  to  interfere  with  the  labors  of  other  mission- 
aries or  ministers,  or  cause  any  disturbance  among 
them,  but  silently  to  observe  whether  any  of  the 
heathen  were  by  the  grace  of  God  prepared  to 
receive  the  Word  of  Life  —  that,  even  if  only  one 
was  to  be  found  desirous  of  hearing,  to  him  the 
gospel  should  be  preached ;  for  God  must  give 
the  heathen  ears  to  hear  the  gospel,  and  hearts 
to  receive  it."  Arriving  in  New  York  (1740), 
he  found  there  an  embassy  of  Mohegan  Indians. 
Their  names  were  Tschoop,1  or  Choop,  and  Sha- 
bash,  the  former  a  chief,  and  both  of  them  de- 
based drunkards.  Though  dissuaded  by  friends 
in  New  York,  Rauch  followed  these  men  to  their 
homes  at  Shekomeko  in  White  Plains,  Dutchess 
County,  fifty  miles  south  of  Albany,  near  the 
confines  of  Connecticut.2  By  means  of  the  Dutch 
language,  with  which  the  Indians  there  had  be- 
come partially  acquainted,  Rauch  was  enabled  to 


1  His  original  Indian  name   was   Wasamapah;  his  English 
name  before  baptism,  Job;  his  baptismal  name,  John.    Bishop 
De   Schweinitz   (Life    of    Zeisberger,   98)   is    of    opinion    that 
Tschoop  must  be  a  misnomer  for  the  German  name  of  Job,  viz., 
Hiob. 

2  Heckewelder,  in  his  Narrative,  418,  speaks  of  Shekomeko 
as  "  bordering  on  the  Connecticut  River,"  instead  of  Province  of 
Connecticut. 


LKCT.VII.]  AT   SHEKOMEKO.  279 

make  known  the  essential  truths  of  Christianity, 
and  the  two  savages  were  at  length  converted. 
Before  baptism,  Tschoop  wrote  a  letter  in  which 
occur  expressions  like  these :  "  I  have  been  a 
poor  wild  heathen,  and  for  forty  years  as  igno- 
rant as  a  dog.  I  was  the  greatest  drunkard  and 
the  most  willing  slave  of  the  Devil;  and,  as  I 
knew  nothing  of  our  Saviour,  I  served  vain  idols, 
which  I  now  wish  to  see  destroyed  by  fire.  Of 
this  I  have  repented  with  many  tears.  .  .  .  Now, 
I  feel  and  believe  that  our  Saviour  alone  can 
help  me  by  the  power  of  his  blood,  and  no  other. 
I  believe  that  he  is  my  God  and  my  Saviour,  who 
died  on  the  cross  for  me,  a  sinner.  I  wish  to  be 
baptized,  and  long  for  it  most  ardently."  It  was 
signed,  "I  am  your  poor,  wild  Tschoop."  The 
fierce  and  profligate  man  became  lamb-like  in 
character ;  and  for  four  years  served  the  mission, 
or  rather  the  Master,  actively  and  usefully.  He 
had  peculiar  tact  in  employing  symbols  and  illus- 
trations. Describing  human  wickedness,  he  took 
a  piece  of  charcoal,  and  drew  on  a  board  a  figure 
of  a  heart,  with  stings  and  points  in  all  direc- 
tions. "  This,"  he  said,  "  is  the  state  of  man's 
heart  while  Satan  dwells  in  it ;  every  evil  thing 
proceeds  from  it."  Bishop  Spangenberg  declared 
that  he  had  the  countenance  of  a  Luther.  He 
acquired  energy  and  clearness  of  speech,  and  at 
times  was  truly  eloquent.  His  aptness  in  replies 
was  not  unlike  the  great  Reformer.  A  woman 


280  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  ELECT,  vn. 

said  to  him:  "As  soon  as  I  have  a  good  heart, 
I  will  turn  to  the  Lord  Jesus."  "Ah!"  replied 
Tschoop,  "  you  want  to  walk  on  your  head !  How 
can  you  get  a  good  heart  unless  you  first  come 
to  Jesus?"1  In  recounting  his  conversion,  the 
once  sottish  Tschoop  gave,  at  the  same  time,  a 
valuable  lecture  on  preaching.  "  Brethren,"  said 
he,  "I  have  been  a  heathen,  and  have  grown 
old  amongst  the  heathen ;  therefore  I  know  how 
heathen  think.  Once  a  preacher  came,  and  be- 
gan to  explain  that  there  is  a  God.  We  an- 
swered :  '  Dost  thou  think  us  so  ignorant  as  not 
to  know  that?  Go  back  to  the  place  whence 
thou  earnest.'  Then  again  another  preacher  came 
and  began  to  teach  us,  and  to  say :  '  You  must 
not  steal  nor  lie  nor  get  drunk.'  We  answered  : 
'Thou  fool!  dost  thou  think  we  do  not  know 
that?  Learn  thyself  first,  and  then  teach  the 
people  to  whom  thou  belongest  to  leave  off  these 
things.  For  who  steals  or  lies,  or  is  more 
drunken,  than  thine  own  people  ? '  And  thus  we 
dismissed  him.  After  some  time,  Brother  Chris- 
tian Henry  Rauch  came  into  my  hut,  and  sat 
down  by  me.  He  spoke  to  me  nearly  as  follows : 
4 1  come  to  you  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  heaven 
and  earth.  He  sends  to  let  you  know  that  he 
will  make  you  happy,  and  deliver  you  from  the 
misery  in  which  you  lie  at  present.  To  this  end 

1  He  died  at  Bethlehem,  Perm.,  August  27,  1746. 


LECT.VII.]  AT   SHEKOMEKO.  281 

he  became  a  man,  gave  his  life  a  ransom  for 
man,  and  shed  his  blood  for  him,'  etc.  When  he 
had  finished  his  discourse,  he  lay  down  upon  a 
board,  fatigued  by  the  journey,  and  fell  into 
a  sound  sleep.  I  then  thought :  '  What  kind 
of  a  man  is  this?  There  he  lies  and  sleeps.  I 
might  kill  him,  and  then  throw  him  out  into 
the  wood,  and  who  would  regard  it?  But  this 
gives  him  no  concern.'  However,  I  could  not 
forget  his  words.  They  constantly  recurred  to 
my  mind.  Even  when  I  was  asleep,  I  dreamt 
of  that  blood  which  Christ  shed  for  us.  I  found 
this  to  be  something  different  from  what  I  had 
ever  heard,  and  I  interpreted  Christian  Henry's 
words  to  the  other  Indians.  Thus,  through  the 
grace  of  God,  an  awakening  took  place  amongst 
us.  I  say,  therefore" —  and,  in  repeating,  I  would 
also  adopt  the  words  of  that  rude  professor  of 
homiletics  —  "I  say,  therefore,  Brethren,  preach 
Christ  our  Saviour  and  his  sufferings  and  death, 
if  you  would  have  your  words  to  gain  entrance 
amongst  the  heathen."  ' 

A  Christian  congregation  was  established  at 
Shekomeko,  and  at  the  end  of  1742  there  were 
thirty-one  baptized  natives.  Other  Moravian  la- 
borers joined  Rauch.  They  dressed  and  lived 
after  the  manner  of  Indians,  and  even  worked 
for  them  to  earn  daily  bread.  By  the  close  of 

1  Loskiel's  History,  Part  II,  14,  15. 


282  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.VII. 

the  year  following,  sixty-nine  had  received  bap- 
tism. Some  of  the  Indians  came  twenty-five 
and  thirty  miles  to  attend  upon  worship  and 
instruction.  These  were  chiefly  from  Pachgat- 
goch,1  near  the  present  town  of  Kent,  in  Litch- 
field  County,  Connecticut,  and  missionaries  vis- 
ited that  place  ;  they  also  visited  Potatick,  in  Fair- 
field  County,  twenty-four  miles  from  New  Haven, 
near  Newtown.  They  toured  and  taught  to  the 
north,  at  Wechquadnach  near  Sharon,  at  Whitak 
near  Salisbury,  and  at  Westenhuc,  probably  Hou- 
satonic,  in  Berkshire  County,  Massachusetts.  It 
startles  us  to  find  these  indefatigable  men  from 
Germany  penetrating*  into  New  England,  and  by 
their  example  bringing  a  silent  rebuke  to  the 
English  settlements.  Thoughtful  natives  could 
not  help  noticing  a  contrast.  At  one  time,  when 
a  trader  was  endeavoring  to  persuade  a  Christian 
named  Abraham  that  the  Brethren  were  not  privi- 
leged teachers,  he  replied  :  "  They  may  be  what 
they  will ;  but  I  know  what  they  have  told  me, 
and  what  God  has  wrought  within  me.  Look 
at  my  poor  countrymen  there,  lying  drunk  before 
your  door.  Why  do  you  not  send  privileged  teach- 
ers to  convert  them  if  they  can  ?  Four  years  ago, 
I  also  lived  like  a  beast,  and  not  one  of  you 
troubled  himself  about  me ;  but  when  the  Breth- 
ren came,  they  preached  the  cross  of  Christ,  and 

1  Called  by  the  whites  Scatticoke. 


LKCT.VII.]  IN  CONNECTICUT.  283 

I  have  experienced  the  power  of  his  blood,  ac- 
cording to  their  doctrine,  so  that  I  am  freed  from 
the  dominion  of  sin.  Such  teachers  we  want." 
These  native  helpers  often  showed  rare  firmness. 
A  chief  who  had  received  the  baptismal  name 
of  Gideon,1  and  had  become  a  fellow-worker,  was 
one  day  attacked  by  a  savage,  who,  aiming  his 
gun  at  him,  shouted:  "Now  I'll  shoot  you,  for 
you  speak  of  nothing  but  Jesus !  "  "  If  Jesus 
does  not  permit  you,"  answered  Gideon,  "  you 
cannot  shoot  me."  The  man  dropped  his  gun, 
and  turned  away  in  silence. 

The  Indians  at  the  settlements  which  have  been 
named  were  chiefly  remnants  of  Mohegans,  Nar- 
ragansetts  and  Wampanoags;  but  the  popular 
name  of  those  among  whom  the  Brethren  la- 
bored in  Connecticut,  was  Scatticokes.  Those 
in  the  Valley  of  the  Housatonic  at  Kent  (Pach- 
gatgoch)  became,  in  some  good  measure  and  in 
considerable  numbers,  a  Christian  community ; 
over  a  hundred  and  twenty  of  them  were  bap- 
tized ;  a  place  for  worship  was  built ;  and  such 
hold  had  religion  taken  upon  the  natives,  such 
reformation  had  been  effected,  that  rumsellers, 
and  dissolute  persons  round  about,  found  their 
gains  cut  off.  Demetrius  became  alarmed  for 
his  shrines,  and  enraged  that  his  craft  was  "in 


1  The  original  name  was  Manioehu.    De  Forest's  Indians  of 
Connecticut,  407. 


284  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.  vn. 

danger  of  being  brought  to  nought."  A  scheme 
was  set  on  foot  for  driving  the  missionaries  from 
the  whole  region.  It  was  charged  that  they  were 
emissaries  of  the  French  —  France  being  then  at 
war  with  England.  An  attempt  was  made  to 
exact  military  service  from  the  Brethren.  They 
were  summoned  to  Poughkeepsie  and  required 
to  take  an  oath,  both  of  which  acts  Were  a  viola- 
tion of  their  principles;  for  at  that  day  Moravians 
harmonized  —  though  now  they  do  not  in  these 
two  particulars  —  with  the  followers  of  William 
Penn.  Pains  were  taken  to  poison  the  minds  of 
English  and  Dutch  colonists  and  magistrates,  as 
well  as  heathen  Indians,  towards  them.  The 
Assembly  of  New  York  passed  two  acts  —  one 
requiring  all  suspicious  persons  to  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance,  or  leave  the  Province ;  the  other, 
enjoining  Moravians,  and  vagrant  teachers  among 
the  Indians,  to  desist  from  further  teaching  or 
preaching,  and  to  depart  from  the  Province.  The 
sheriff  of  Dutchess  County,  assisted  by  three 
justices  of  the  peace,  closed  the  mission  chapel. 
Here  and  there,  it  is  true,  dispassionate  testimony 
was  borne  to  the  character  of  the  Brethren  and 
to  the  results  of  their  labor.  A  justice  of  the 
peace  at  Filkentown  declared  that  "he  must 
acknowledge  the  mission  in  Shekomeko  to  be 
a  work  of  God,  because,  by  the  labor  of  the 
Brethren,  the  most  savage  heathen  had  been 
so  evidently  changed,  that  he,  with  many  other 


LBCT.VII.]  IN   PENNSYLVANIA.  285 

Christians,  were  put  to  shame  by  their  godly  walk 
and  conversation."  '  A  justice  of  the  peace  from 
the  neighborhood,  who  accompanied  Bishop  Span- 
genberg  on  his  visit  to  Shekomeko,  affirmed  that 
he  would  rather  have  his  hand  cut  off  than  treat 
the  Brethren  in  accordance  with  the  act  which 
had  been  passed  against  them,  for  with  his  own 
eyes  he  could  see  that  wonders  of  grace  had  been 
wrought  among  the  Indians.2  Five  years  later 
(1749),  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  put  a 
check  upon  such  unauthorized  provincial  legis- 
lation, by  an  act  for  encouraging  the  people 
known  by  the  name  of  Unitas  Fratrum,  or  United 
Brethren,  to  settle  in  his  majesty's  colonies,  allow- 
ing them  "  to  make  a  solemn  affirmation  in  lieu  of 
an  oath,  and  exempting  them  from  military  ser- 
vice."3 The  Brethren  were  law-abiding  men, 
peaceably  inclined,  and  accordingly  betook  them- 
selves to  Pennsylvania,4  whither,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  severity-one  converts,  the  Christian  Indians 
followed,  who,  upon  leaving,  were  loaded  with 
jeers  and  curses.  White  men  at  once  seized  their 
lands,  with  the  purpose  of  never  allowing  the  ex- 

1  Heckewelder's  Narrative,  25. 

2  "  Da  wir  aber  selbst  hinkamen  o  meine  Briider  !  "  exclaims  the 
good  Bishop,  "  dass  miisste  ein  todter  Mensch  seyn,  der  nicht  iiber 
der  Gnade,  die  diesen    Volke  wiederfahren  ist,  in  Thranen  zerfliisse." 
Loskiel,  285. 

3  Life  of  Zeisberger,  118,  164. 

4  In  1765,  Kauch  conducted  a  Moravian  colony  to  the  District 
of  Wacovia  in  North  Carolina. 


286  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VII. 

lies  to  reoccupy  them.  Thus  was  the  second 
Moravian  mission,  which  proved  a  success  for  the 
time,  and  had  reasonably  awakened  strong  hopes, 
broken  up  by  prejudiced  and  evil-minded  men. 
In  1749,  labors  were  renewed  at  the  old  stations 
in  New  York  and  New  England.  Wechquadnach 
was  not  entirely  abandoned  till  1753,  nor  Pachgat- 
goch  till  1770,  missionaries  continuing  to  visit  such 
Christian  remnants  as  preferred  persecution  to  ex- 
ile, and  so  lingered  behind.  Only  fifty  miles  to 
the  north  of  this  field  of  Moravian  effort,  and  six- 
teen to  the  east  of  Albany,  was  Kaunaumeek, 
where  David  Brainerd  began  his  labors  among  the 
Indians,  spending  the  next  year  there  (1743),  after 
Rauch  commenced  at  Shekomeko.  The  place  is 
now  known  as  "  Brainerd's  Bridge,"  *  but  no  mon- 
ument marks  the  spot.2 

It  will  be  recollected  that  upon  the  Spanish  in- 
vasion of  Georgia,  Moravian  missionaries  among 
the  Creeks  felt  constrained  to  retire  from  that  field. 
They  took  passage  in  George  Whitefield's  sloop, 
and,  with  the  celebrated  preacher,  reached  Phila- 
delphia April  25,  1740.  Under  an  engagement  to 
him,  they  began  building  a  school-house  for  negro 


1  Not  named  for  the  missionary,  but  for  Jeremiah  Brainerd. 

2  In  1859,  the  Moravian  Historical  Society,  with  appropriate 
observances,  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  Christian  Rauch  and 
Gottlob  Biittner  monuments  at  Shekomeko,  overlooking  a  sheet 
of  water  called  Gnadensee,  "  Lake  of  Grace ; "  and,  at  Wechquad- 
nach, one  to  the  memory  of  David  Bruce  and  Joseph  Powell. 


LECT.VII.]          ALGONQTJINS  AND  IEOQUOIS.  287 

children,  still  known  as  the  "  Whitefield  House," 
and  which,  with  its  museum  of  Moravian  relics, 
no  stranger  at  the  present  day,  in  visiting  Nazar- 
eth, Northampton  County,  fails  to  inspect.  The 
next  year,  that  site  was  abandoned  for  one  on  the 
Lehigh  River,  fifty  miles  from  Philadelphia ;  and 
there  was  founded  Bethlehem,  now  the  most  im- 
portant Moravian  settlement  in  the  United  States, 
the  Herrnhut  of  America,  and  which  early  became 
the  center  of  direction  for  the  missions  of  the 
United  Brethren  among  Indian  tribes. 

Nearly  all  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania  was 
within  the  limits  of  the  widespread  Algonquin 
family,  which  also  included  Virginia,  Maryland,  a 
great  part  of  the  Middle  States,  New  England, 
Western  States  to  the  Mississippi,  and  British 
Possessions  toward  the  extreme  north.  Differ- 
ences in  their  language  are  only  dialectic.  One 
of  the  dialects  was  that  into  which  Eliot  trans- 
lated the  Bible.  The  natives  in  Western  Connec- 
ticut and  beyond  the  western  border  of  that  State, 
among  whom  we  have  seen  the  Moravians  labor- 
ing, were  branches  of  the  same  stock.  But  within 
this  far-reaching  Algonquin  field  was  a  distinct  and 
a  comparatively  compact  race,  Huron-Iroquois. 
They  occupied  New  York,  a  part  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  a  part  of  Canada  north  of  Lake  Erie.  These 
two  families  were  geographically  situated  some- 
what as  the  Wendish  stock  is  encompassed,  like 
an  island,  by  the  Teutons  of  Northern  Europe. 


288  MOKAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LBOI.VII. 

The  Iroquois,  first  known  to  English  colonists  as 
"  The  Five  Nations,"  afterwards  J  better  known  as 
"  The  Six  Nations,"  were  the  fierce  Ishmaelites  of 
the  land,  ever  at  war  with  neighbors.  Their  local 
position,  a  peculiarly  favorable  one,  extended  from 
the  gate  of  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  head-waters  of 
the  Ohio,  the  Delaware,  the  Susquehanna  and  the 
Hudson.  Energetic  and  sagacious,  they  had  a 
brain-measure  superior  to  other  aborigines,  and  a 
general  development,  though  savage,  yet  superior 
to  that  of  surrounding  savages.  Their  confeder- 
acy, represented  by  fifty  sachems  in  a  general 
council,  accustomed  to  meet  at  the  Onondaga 
capital,  gave  them  the  advantage  of  concert,  so 
much  wanting  generally  among  Indian  tribes,  and 
was  at  once  a  source  and  proof  of  more  advanced 
capacity  and  power.  They  were  proportionately 
haughty,  entertaining  exalted  notions  of  their 
rank,  and  admitting  the  king  of  England  alone  to 
be  on  a  parity  with  them.  To  this  proud  and 
warlike  confederacy  the  peace-loving  Moravians 
proposed  to  carry  the  gospel.  Pyrlseus,  who  had 
visited  the  Mohawks  and  acquired  their  language, 
was  appointed  to  teach  the  same  in  a  kind  of  insti- 
tute at  Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania.  But,  this  being 
a  time  of  excited  suspicion  on  account  of  the  war 
between  England  and  France,  the  young  men 


1  The  related  tribe   ,f  Tuscaroras,  from  North  Carolina,  was 
adopted  1712-1715. 


LECT.VII.]  MISSION  TO   DELA WARES.  289 

destined  for  service  among  the  Six  Nations  could 
not  then  secure  favorable  access.  Two  of  his 
pupils,  Zeisberger  and  Mack,  were  designated  to 
labor  at  Shamokin,  now  Sunbury,  Northumber- 
land County,  an  Indian  town  on  the  Susque- 
hanna,  fifty-six  miles  north  of  Harrisburg;  and 
there  the  former  of  these  two,  Zeisberger,  began 
his  Iroquois  dictionary.  He  visited  Wyoming,  in 
Luzerne  County,  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Lack- 
awanna,  which,  as  well  as  the  place  just  named, 
was  one  of  the  Iroquois  dependencies.  Little  suc- 
cess, however,  attended  Moravian  efforts  among 
the  Six  Nations. 

Among  the  Delawares,  they  met  with  encourage- 
ment. This  people  —  whose  native  name  is  Lenni- 
Lenape,  belonging  to  the  great  Algonquin  family, 
and  recognized  originally  by  other  branches  of 
that  stock  as  "Grandfathers"  —  were  more  widely 
scattered  than  the  Six  Nations,  but  inferior  to 
them  in  prowess.  Indeed,  they  were  a  conquered 
people,  and  hence,  in  token  of  subjection,  called 
"Women."  They  were,  however,  more  accessible 
to  Christian  influences.  But  the  first  missionary 
stations  established  in  Pennsylvania  were  at  set- 
tlements of  Christian  Indian  refugees,  not  of  the 
Delaware  stock,  from  those  earlier  fields  in  Eastern 
New  York  and  the  western  part  of  Connecticut, 
whence  they  had  been  driven  by  the  hostility  of 
neighboring  white  settlers.  The  names  Friedens- 
hiitten,  "Tents  of  Peace,"  at  Bethlehem  (1746), 
19 


290  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  CLECT-TH. 

and  soon  after  Gnadenhiitten,  "  Tents  of  Grace," 
on  the  Mahony,1  in  Carbon  County,  as  well  as  a 
second  Gnadenhiitten,2  indicate  the  ever-hopeful 
spirit  and  pious  imagination  of  the  harassed  Mora- 
vians. In  process  of  time,  Christian  labor  was 
commenced  at  various  places  successively  in  be- 
half of  Indian  natives  of  Pennsylvania,  who,  as 
well  as  immigrants  from  the  East,  became  fugi- 
tives in  turn.  Within  the  present  limits  of  Mun- 
roe  County  were  Wechquetank3  and  Meniolago- 
mekak  ; 4  in  Lehigh  County,  Naiii ; 5  in  Bradford 
County,  the  second  Friedenshiitten ; 6  Machiwihi- 
lusing,  near  by  (1765),  and  Schechschiquaniink, 
some  thirty  miles  distant.7  Venango  County  had 
within  its  borders  Goschgoschiink,8  on  the  east 


1  Signifying  "  Deer  Lick,"  where  was  a  salt-spring. 
*  Now  Weissport,  on  the  east  bank  of  the   Lehigh  (1754), 
destroyed  by  the  French  Indians,  1756. 

3  In  the  present  town  of  Polk,  twenty-seven  miles  north  of 
Nain  (1760).    From  here  and  from  Nain,  Indians  were  removed 
to  the  Philadelphia  barracks,  1763. 

4  In  Eldred  Township,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Aquanshi- 
cola,  eight  miles  west  of  Wind  Gap. 

5  Where  is  now  Hanover,  two  miles  from  Bethlehem,  settled 
by  fugitives  from  other  stations,  1758;  abandoned  1765. 

6  On  the  east  side  of  the  Susquehanna,two  miles  below  Wya- 
lusing  Creek,  where  the  Christian  Indians  who  had  been  trans- 
ported to  Philadelphia  were  established,  1765 ;  abandoned  177o. 

7  A  town  of  the  Monseys,  on  the  west  branch  of  the  Susque- 
hanna  (1769). 

8  A  Monsey  town  occupied  by  Zeisberger  (1765),  the  first 
white  man  in  the  place. 


LEcr.vu.i  MISSION   TO   DELA WAKES.  291 

branch  of  the  Alleghany,  and  three  miles  above 
Lawunakhannek,1  which  was  abandoned  1770; 
and,  at  the  extreme  west  of  the  State,  Lawrence 
County  had  its  Friedensstadt,  "  City  of  Peace." 2 
Still  later,  Ohio  witnessed  the  labors  and  severe 
trials  of  Moravian  missionaries,  especially  in  the 
valley  of  the  Tuscarawas  River.  The  county 
bearing  that  name  reckoned  at  different  times  six 
stations:  Gekelemukpechiink,3  the  first  capital  of 
the  Delawares  in  Ohio,  and  where  the  first  Protest- 
ant sermon  in  that  State  was  preached  (1771); 
Gnadenhiitten  the  Third;4  Schonbrunn,  "  Beauti- 
ful Spring," 5  where  the  first  meeting-house  and 
first  school-house  in  the  State  were  built,  and  the 
first  white  child  was  born  (1773) ;  also  new  Schon- 
brunn,6 Salem,7  and  Goshen.8  The  neighboring 


1  In  the  midst  of  the  present  oil  region  (1769).    The  Indians 
were  acquainted  with  petroleum,  and  used  it  for  medicinal  pur- 
poses. 

2  On  Beaver  River  (1770) ;  deserted  1773. 

3  In  the  town  of  Oxford  ;  abandoned  by  the  tribe  1776. 

4  In  Clay  Township,  on  the  Tuscarawas  River  (1772).    The 
Indians  were  massacred  1782. 

5  In  Goshen,  two  miles  from   New  Philadelphia;   the   first 
settlement  of  Christian  Indians  in  Ohio. 

6  Also  in  Goshen,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the   Tuscarawas 
River  (1779) ;  destroyed  in  1782. 

7  On  the  west  bank  of  the  Tuscarawas  River,  a  mile  or  two 
from  Port  Washington  (1780). 

8  In  the  present  town  of  Goshen,  seven  miles  from  Gnaden- 
hiitten, the  last  settlement  of  Christian  Indians  established  by 
Zeisberger  (1798). 


292  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.VII. 

county  of  Coshocton  has  a  record  of  the  two  sta- 
tions —  Goschachgiink,1  the  second  capital  of  the 
Delawares;  and  Lichtenau,2  "Pasture  of  Light." 
To  the  north  we  find  PilgerrulV  "Pilgrim's  Rest," 
in  Cuyahoga  County ;  New  Salem, 4  in  Erie 
County;  and,  further  west,  Captives' Town.s  The 
State  of  Michigan  also  had  its  New  Gnaden- 
hiitten.6  Crossing  into  Canada  West,  we  light 
upon  Die  Warte,?  "The  Watch-Tower,"  at  the 
mouth  of  Detroit  RiVer ;  Fairfield,8  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Thames,  and  New  Fairfield,9  on  its 
left  bank. 

Now,  whence  came   the   men  who  sought  out 


1  Now  Coshocton,  on  the  Muskingum,  below  the  junction  of 
the  Tuscarawas  and  Walholding. 

2  On  the  east  bank  of  the  Muskingum,  two  or  three  miles 
below  Coshocton ;  the  third  settlement  of  Christian  Indians  in 
the  State  (1776). 

3  In  the  town  of   Independence,  on  the   east  bank   of  the 
Cuyahoga    River,   where,   however,  the   Christian  Indians  re- 
mained only  one  year  (1786). 

4  In  the  township  of  Milan,  a  few  miles  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Huron  River  (1787) ;  abandoned  1791. 

5  In  Antrim,  Wyandot  County,  on  the  Sandusky  River,  eleven 
miles  below  Upper  Sandusky  (1781). 

6  In  Clinton,  Macomb  County,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Clin- 
ton River  (1782). 

7  Near  Amherstburg,  a  stopping-place  of  Christian  Indians 
in  1791-2. 

8  In  Oxford,  eighty-five  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river 
(1792). 

9  In  Oxford,  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Fairfield,  back  from  the 
river. 


LBCT.VII.]  HOMES   OF  MORAVIANS.  293 

bands  of  savage  aborigines,  and  followed  them 
from  valley  to  valley,  over  mountain  ridges  and 
through  primeval  forests,  before  the  hand  of  civi- 
lization had  opened  even  the  rudest  thorough- 
fares ?  Pausing  to  reflect  a  moment,  it  strikes  us 
as  noteworthy  that  at  the  present  time  our  own 
sons  arid  brothers  are  so  widely  scattered  through 
the  heathen  world.  Yet  there  is  not  one  of  them, 
even  among  the  antipodes,  who  may  not  reach  his 
birthplace  here  in  much  less  time  than  was  re- 
quired for  an  average  journey  of  those  Moravians 
from  these  fields  of  missionary  toil  to  their  native 
seats.  They  came  from  Alsace,  from  the  Palatin- 
ate, from  the  Black  Forest,  from  Wiirtemburg, 
from  Swabia,  Brandenburg,  Holstein,  Livonia, 
Polish  Prussia,  Moravia  and  Bohemia.  They 
came,  the  first  heralds  of  the  gospel,  to  regions, 
though  not  to  the  race,  which,  after  the  lapse  of  a 
century,  are  now  sending  forth  young  men  and 
women  to  Africa,  India,  China  and  Japan.  Some 
of  them  belonged,  as  everywhere  else  and  through 
the  whole  history  of  the  Unitas  Fratrum  thus  far, 
to  the  humbler  classes;  some  of  them  were  well 
educated.  John  Jacob  Schmick  graduated  at  the 
University  of  Konigsberg ;  Matthew  Hehl,  at  Tu- 
bingen; and  Pyrlseus,  at  Leipzig  —  institutions  to 
which  numerous  young  men  from  our  country 
now  resort  for  advanced  study. 

From  the  catalogue  of  laborers  among  North- 
American  Indians,  several  names  might  be  selected 


294  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.VII. 

of  men  deserving  honorable  mention  in  the  gen- 
eral history  of  missions.  The  name  of  Chris- 
tian Henry  Rauch,  the  solitary  man  who  landed 
at  New  York  (1740),  when,  unknown  to  him, 
the  little  colony  of  United  Brethren  were  flying 
from  Georgia,  followed  two  degraded  Indians  to 
their  haunt  on  the  confines  of  Eastern  New  York, 
and  won  them  to  Christ,  has  been  introduced. 
The  laborers  afterwards  on  the  same  field  were 
worthy  of  those  monuments  which  have  been 
erected  to  their  memory.  Not  less  worthy  of 
mention  is  John  Heckewelder,1  whose  father  was 
a  native  of  Moravia,  an  associate  of  Zeisberger, 
who  started  on  his  first  missionary  journej7  before 
he  was  fully  nineteen  —  a  man  who  rode  three 
days  and  two  nights  to  prevent  an  Indian  out- 
break, and  succeeded ;  who  repeatedly  escaped 
attempts  of  the  savages  to  murder  him ;  who 
enjoyed  the  confidence  of  General  Washington; 
who  was  appointed  by  the  War  Department  of 
the  United  States  as  Assistant  Commissioner,  at 
different  times,  with  such  men  as  General  Ru- 


1  Memoirs  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  Volume 
XII,  465.  The  original  work  was  translated  into  German, 
and  published  at  Gottingen,  1821.  A  translation  into  French, 
by  Du  Ponceau,  appeared  in  Paris  in  1822.  Other  works  by 
Heckewelder:  Narrative  of  the  Mission  of  the  United  Brethren 
among  the  Delaware  and  Mohecan  Indians,  1820 ;  Names  which 
the  Lenni-Lenape,  or  Delaware  Indians,  give  to  the  Rivers,  etc., 
1822. 


LF.cr.vn.]  HECKEWELDER.  295 

fus  Putnam,  General  Benjamin  Lincoln,  Colonel 
Timothy  Pickering  and  some  others,  to  negotiate 
treaties  of  peace  with  Indian  tribes;  who  wrote 
a  valuable  history  of  the  Lenni-Lenape,  as  well  as 
other  works.  In  recognizing  the  special  provi- 
dence of  God,  he  makes  this  record :  "  I  have 
experienced  the  divine  protection  in  a  singular 
manner  (for  which  all  glory  and  praise  is  due 
to  Him),  in  all  those  common  and  inevitable 
dangers  to  which  all  those  are  more  or  less 
exposed  who  have  to  perform  similar  journeys 
of  several  hundreds  of  miles  through  the  wilder- 
ness, continually  surrounded  by  all  the  perils  of 
storms  and  swollen  waters,  of  hunger  and  frost, 
by  day  and  night,  and  of  venomous  and  raven- 
ous beasts.  Four  times  I  have  met  panthers, 
twice  when  I  was  quite  alone,  which,  however, 
after  stopping  and  sitting  down  opposite  to  me 
for  a  short  time,  rose  again  without  attacking 
me,  and  slunk  off  to  the  forest ;  and,  at  another 
time,  I  killed  in  my  encampment  at  Cuyahoga, 
in  one  day,  with  the  assistance  of  Indians,  six 
rattlesnakes."1  He  was  a  man  to  sing,  with  his 
companion,2  inspiring  German  missionary  hymns, 
in  the  midst  of  a  howling  wilderness,  wild  beasts 
and  birds  the  only  listeners.  Notwithstanding 
an  ample  experience  of  toil  and  privations,  the 


1  Rondthaler's  Life  of  Heckewelder,  139. 

2  Christian  Frederick  Post. 


296  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VII. 

useful,  cheerful  man,  a  man  of  great  simplicity 
and  transparency  of  character,  attained  to  a  good 
old  age,  even  fourscore  years ;  and  in  the  beauti- 
ful cemetery  at  Bethlehem,  beside  the  remains 
of  fifty-six  Indians,  rest  the  remains  of  this  faith- 
ful friend  of  the  Delawares. 

But  the  name  more  especially  deserving  an 
extended  notice  is  that  of  David  Zeisberger,  the 
John  Eliot  of  the  West,  the  Apostle  of  the  Dela- 
wares. Born  in  the  village  of  Zauchtenthal,  in 
Eastern  Bohemia  (1721),  he  was  taken  at  five 
years  of  age  by  his  parents,  when,  leaving  their 
all,  they  fled  for  conscience'  sake  to  Herrnhut. 
Joining  the  Moravian  colony  which  was  patron- 
ized by  General  Oglethorpe,  they  emigrated  to 
Georgia  (1736),  whither  their  son  David,  at  six- 
teen, followed  them  from  Holland,  where  he  had 
been  placed  at  school.  From  Georgia,  he  went 
with  the  remnants  of  that  colony  to  Pennsyl- 
vania. At  a  dinner-table  in  Bethlehem,  as  some 
Moravian  young  men  were  singing  a  German 
hymn,1  in  the  way  of  grace,  he  was  deeply  im- 
pressed, burst  into  tears,  left  the  table,  and  spent 
the  afternoon  in  weeping  and  praying,  till  the 
light  of  Christian  hope  dawned  upon  him.  The 
hour  of  conversion  was  the  hour  of  his  consecra- 


1  One  of  Zinzendorf's  well-known  hymns : 
"  Du  ewiger  Abgrttnd  der  seligen  Liebe, 
In  Jesu  Christo  aufgethan." 


LKCT.  TIL]  ZEISBERGER.  297 

tion  to  the  cause  of  missions.  Soon  after,  he  joined 
the  class  of  students  under  John  Christopher 
Pyrlaeus,  for  the  study  of  Indian  languages,  and 
was  enrolled  as  one  destined  for  service  among 
the  heathen.  The  next  year,  he  went  to  the 
Valley  of  the  Mohawk  (1745),  with  a  view  to 
perfecting  himself  in  the  Indian  language  spoken 
there,  and  King  Hendrick  became  his  instructor. 
But  the  authorities  at  Albany,  entertaining  a 
suspicion  that  he  and  his  companion  were  spies 
in  the  interest  of  France,  had  them  arrested, 
examined,  and  dismissed  to  New  York  City, 
where  they  were  imprisoned  for  nearly  two 
months — an  indignity  and  wrong  which  were 
borne  with  characteristic  Moravian  cheerfulness. 
On  leaving  the  place,  they  inscribed  verses  from 
the  German  hymn-book  on  the  walls  of  their 
room,  as  a  testimony  of  their  trust  in  God.  Not 
long  afterward,  Zeisberger  was  appointed  one  of 
two  envoys  to  accompany  Bishop  Spangenberg  on 
a  deputation  to  Onondaga,  the  capital  of  the  Six 
Nations,  with  a  view  to  negotiations;  and  in  a  sim- 
ilar way  he  accompanied  Bishop  Cammerhoff  to 
the  same  official  center  of  that  powerful  league  — 
a  visit  repeated  four  times  at  later  dates  —  where 
he  built  a  mission-house,  and  was  made  keeper 
of  the  archives  of  the  Grand  Council.  He  was 
sought  for  by  the  Indians  to  live  among  them ; 
was  adopted  by  the  Iroquois,  and  enrolled  in  the 
clan  of  the  Turtle ;  afterwards  was  also  natural- 


298  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VH. 

ized  by  the  Monseys.  Scarcely  a  journey  or  un- 
dertaking of  any  kind  did  he  enter  upon,  which 
had  not  the  welfare  of  Indians  for  its  object. 

On  visiting  Herrnhut,  he  received  from  Count 
Zinzendorf  an  appointment,  with  the  imposition  of 
hands,  as  perpetual  missionary  to  the  aborigines 
of  America ;  and  faithfully  was  this  commission, 
which  accorded  with  his  previous  and  fixed  pur- 
pose, executed.  He  practiced  great  self-denial.  At 
one  time,  an  associate  found  him  completely  pros- 
trated, and  yet  free,  to  all  appearance,  from  mal- 
ady. Only  after  closest  questioning  did  it  come 
to  light  that,  in  order  to  relieve  the  mission  treas- 
ury, Zeisberger  was  limiting  himself  to  the  coarsest 
fare,  and  even  that  not  in  sufficient  quantity.  "  He 
would  never  consent  to  have  his  name  put  down 
on  a  salary-list,  or  become  a  'hireling,'  as  he  termed 
it,  saying  that,  although  a  salary  might  be  both 
agreeable  and  proper  for  some  missionaries,  yet  in 
his  case  it  would  be  the  contrary.  He  had  de- 
voted himself  to  the  service  of  the  Lord  among 
the  heathen,  without  any  view  of  a  reward  other 
than  such  as  his  Lord  and  Master  might  deign  to 
bestow  upon  him."  Nearly  all  the  stations  in 
Pennsylvania  which  have  been  named,  witnessed 
his  zeal ;  he  established  the  first  station  in  Ohio, 
and  labored  successfully  at  all  those  which  have 
been  mentioned  in  that  State,  as  well  as,  follow- 
ing his  beloved  flock  to  Michigan  and  to  Canada, 
still  devoting  himself  to  their  interests.  Every- 


UCCT.VII.]  HARDSHIPS  AND  PERILS.  299 

where  men  recognized  him  as  a  leader.  These 
journeys  were  attended  with  the  greatest  hard- 
ships. At  that  period,  the  forests  were  almost 
trackless;  dense  underwood  often  entangled  the 
traveler ;  not  unfrequently  would  he  find  himself 
sinking  in  a  treacherous  morass.  No  well-graded 
turnpike  then  traversed  the  Alleghany  and  Laurel 
Hill  Mountains ;  bridle-paths  were,  for  the  most 
part,  all  that  could  be  expected  —  an  expectation 
but  partially  fulfilled  in  the  gloomy  and  tremen- 
dous wilderness.  The  explorations  made  by  Zeis- 
berger,  the  perils  and  privations  he  endured,  were 
far  greater  than  those  of  Eliot  and  the  Mayhews. 
Extreme  danger  was  sometimes  encountered. 
Now  a  surly  trader,  with  a  war-club,  strikes  him 
to  the  ground,  stamps  on  him,  and  beats  him  with 
a  firebrand ;  now  a  gigantic  rattlesnake  might  be 
felt  striking  our  missionary's  limb,  or  be  found 
coiled  beneath  the  pillow  on  which  his  head  had 
rested  during  the  night.  In  the  course  of  his 
more  than  fifty  years'  journeyings,  he  passed  over 
hundreds  of  these  reptiles,  and  yet  never  received 
the  slightest  injury  from  them.  Substantially  the 
same  was  true  of  all  the  other  Moravian  mission- 
aries among  the  Indians.  Once,  as  was  the  case 
with  Augustine,  Bishop  of  Hippo,  the  preservation 
of  his  life  from  assassins  in  ambush  was  due  to  his 
having  unintentionally  taken  a  wrong  path.  Only 
by  a  kind  Providence  is  he  saved  from  the  Indian 
massacre  at  Gnadenhiitten,  as  well  as  from  the 


300  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VII. 

hand  of  the  haughty  half-king  of  the  Wyandots 
in  the  Valley  of  the  Muskingum ;  by  the  same 
Providence  he  is  rescued  from  Indians  headed  by 
the  infamous  Simon  Girty,  and  again  from  the 
tomahawk  of  a  fierce  savage  at  the  very  instant  it 
was  falling  upon  his  naked  head.  His  trust  was 
in  no  arm  of  flesh.1  If  without  medicine  or  pro- 
visions when  sickness  overtook  him  in  the  wilder- 
ness, he  did  not  repine.  He  made  the  primitive 
forests  of  Western  Pennsylvania  and  of  Eastern 
Ohio  ring  with  hymns  of  praise.  Usually  full  of 
forbearance  and  kindness,  gentle  and  concilia- 
tory in  his  address,  he  knew  how  occasionally  to 
administer  deserved  stern  rebuke.  Listen  to  him 
at  Goschgoschiink,  a  village  of  low,  treacherous 
Monseys,  where  Satan's  seat  is,  and  where  Wan- 
gomen,  a  blasphemous  preacher  of  heathenism, 
sways  a  villanous  crowd.  The  missionary's  life 
is  completely  in  their  hands ;  yet  he  fearlessly 
confronts  the  subtle  agent  of  mischief:  "Did  I 
not  tell  you,  some  days  ago,  that  there  is  only  one 
way  of  salvation,  and  the  Saviour  that  way  ?  All 
men,  whether  white  or  black  or  brown,  must  come 
to  him  if  they  would  be  saved,  must  feel  that  they 
are  sinners  and  seek  forgiveness  of  him.  Now, 


1  "I  make  no  pretensions,"  he  said,  "to  false  heroism,  but 
am  by  nature  as  timid  as  a  dove.  My  trust  is  altogether  in  God. 
Never  yet  has  he  put  me  to  shame,  but  always  granted  me  the 
courage  and  comfort  I  need." 


LECT.VII.]  HARDSHIPS   AND  PERILS.  301 

what  kind  of  a  god  is  your  god  ?  By  what  attri- 
butes do  you  recognize  him?"  Wangomen  was 
silent.  "  If  you  cannot  tell  me,"  continued  Zeis- 
berger,  "  I  will  tell  you.  The  Devil  is  your  god. 
You  preach  the  Devil  to  the  Indians ;  you  are  the 
servant  of  the  Devil,  who  is  the  father  of  lies ;  and, 
being  the  servant  of  the  Devil,  the  father  of  lies, 
you  preach  lies  and  deceive  the  Indians."  The 
false  prophet  is  confounded.  The  herald  of  truth 
then  tenderly  adds :  "  There  is  yet  time ;  the 
Saviour  grants  you  grace.  If  you  will  turn  to 
him,  you  may  yet  obtain  salvation.  But  beware ! 
Delay  not!  Hasten  to  save  your  poor  soul!"1 
See  him  in  the  Valley  of  the  Tuscarawas,  Ohio. 
Wyandots  are  shooting  down  the  domestic  ani- 
mals. Plunder  of  the  mission-house  and  destruc- 
tion of  the  place  have  been  determined  upon  by 
the  savages.  Zeisberger  orders  the  chapel  bell 
rung  as  for  usual  morning  service.  The  Delaware 
converts  assemble,  and  sing  a  hymn  in  their  own 
language.  In  the  course  of  his  address  which  fol- 
lows, the  self-possessed,  heroic  missionary  says: 
"My  brethren,  our  present  situation,  in  some  re- 
spects, is  indeed  unparalleled.  We  are  surrounded 
by  a  body  of  heathen ;  by  enemies  to  the  glorious 
gospel ;  by  those  who  threaten  to  take  our  lives  if 
we  do  not  go  with  them  and  make  them  our  near 
neighbors.  Nevertheless  we  trust  in  the  Lord  and 

1  Life  and  Times  of  Zeisberger,  334. 


302  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.  vn. 

submit  to  our  fate.  He  will  not  forsake  us.  We 
will  quietly  await  whatever  he  permits.  We  will 
not  defend  our  lives  by  force  of  arms;  for  that 
would  be  putting  ourselves  on  a  level  with  the 
heathen,  and  we  are  the  children  of  God.  Neither 
will  we  hate  our  enemies.  They  know  not  what 
they  do.  We  are  Christians,  and  will  therefore 
rather  pray  for  them,  that  the  Lord  God  may  open 
their  eyes  and  turn  their  hearts,  that  they  may  re- 
pent and  be  saved.  Perhaps  we  may  yet  see  some 
of  those  who  are  here  now,  seeking  Christ  and  join- 
ing his  holy  church,  against  which  the  gates  of  hell 
shall  not  prevail." ' 

Zeisberger  performed  services  not  unimportant 
in  behalf  of  his  adopted  country.  Not  only  did 
he  act  as  Government  interpreter  at  the  General 
Congress  held  with  the  Indian  tribes  in  1761,2 
but,  in  1776,  he  secured  the  neutrality  of  the 
Delawares;  and  at  Fort  Pitt  he  was  instrumental 
in  preventing  an  Indian  war  (1769).  The  value 
of  this  service  was  acknowledged  by  several  of 
the  American  generals.3 


1  Life  and  Times  of  Zeisberger,  502. 

2  At  Easton,  Pennsylvania. 

3  Generals  Broadhead,  Hand,  Irvine  and  Neville  —  by  one  of 
them,  General  Richard  Butler,  in  these  terms :    "  Had  the  chiefs 
of  the   Delaware  nation,  together  with  the  Christian  Indians, 
pursued  a  different  course   than   that  which  they  adopted,  all 
joined  the  enemy  and  taken  up  the  hatchet  against  the  Ameri- 
can people,  it  would  have  cost  the  United  States  much  blood 


LBOT.vii.2  LITERARY  LABORS.  303 

In  early  life,  Zeisberger  became  fairly  proficient 
in  the  Latin  language ;  and  besides  his  vernacu- 
lar, the  German,  he  was  acquainted  with  the 
Dutch,  and  was  at  home  in  the  English ;  he  spoke 
the  Delaware  fluently;  had  mastered  the  Mo- 
hawk, and  could  use  several  dialects  of  the  Iro- 
quois  tribes.  His  literary  labors  were  far  from 
unimportant  —  labors  which  surpassed  those  of 
any  other  man  in  the  last  century  toward  the 
development  of  the  Delaware  language  and  the 
Onondaga  dialect  of  the  Iroquois.  Among  those 
in  the  former  tongue  which  were  printed  are, 
A  Delaware  and  English  Spelling-Book ; '  A  Col- 
lection of  Hymns,  being  translations  from  the 
German  ;  *  Sermons  to  Children  ; 3  A  Treatise,  by 
Bishop  Spangenberg,  translated  (1803) ;  and  The 
History  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.* 
In  the  library  of  the  American  Philosophical  So- 
ciety, at  Philadelphia,  may  be  seen  the  manu- 


and  treasure  to  have  withstood  them  and  checked  their  prog, 
ress,  besides  weakening  our  already  feeble  armies  on  the 
seaboard  by  draining  them  of  troops  for  the  Western  service, 
and  this  might  have  proved  fatal  to  the  cause." 

1  With  an  Appendix  containing  a  Church  Litany,  the  Ten 
Commandments,  etc.,  1777.     Second  edition,  1806. 

2  With  Litanies,  1803.     Second  edition,  1847. 

3  Seventeen  in  number,  1803. 

*  1821,  in  the  words  of  Scripture,  as  arranged  by  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Lieberkithn,  M.A.  There  is  also  A  Verbal  Biegungen  der 
Chippewayer.  It  appeared  in  Vater's  Analeckten  der  Sprach* 
kunde,  Leipzig,  1821. 


304  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS. 

scripts,  besides  other  philological  aids,  such  as 
grammars  and  vocabularies,  Zeisberger's  Lexi- 
con of  the  German  and  Onondaga  Languages, 
which  fills  seven  volumes;  while  in  the  library 
of  Harvard  College  may  be  seen  a  trunk,  pro- 
vided by  the  late  Hoi?.  Edward  Everett,  con- 
taining fourteen  manuscripts,  handsomely  bound, 
also  at  his  expense.1 

It  was  at  Goshen,  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
Tuscarawas,  in  Ohio,  the  last  Indian  town  found- 
ed by  Zeisberger,  that  this  apostolic  man  spent 
his  later  years.  In  the  midst  of  great  pain  he 
said :  "  The  Saviour  is  near.  Perhaps  he  will 
soon  call  and  take  me  home."  During  his 
last  sickness,  it  was  soothing  to  him,  as  Indian 
converts,  grouped  round  his  bed,  sung  in  their 
native  Delaware  from  his  Itymn-book.  On  the 
17th  of  November,  1808,  the  chapel  bell  was 
tolled;  the  adult  Indians  of  the  place  gathered 
at  his  couch,  sung  of  the  Redeemer  and  of 
heaven,  till  the  venerated  patriarch  fell  asleep 


1  George  Fabricius,  a  University  alumnus,  who  was  killed 
in  an  Indian  massacre  (1775),  translated  several  parts  of  the 
Scriptures  into  the  Delaware  language ;  Schmick  translated 
the  history  of  our  Lord's  sufferings  into  Mohegan,  as  well  as 
litanies  and  certain  hymns,  and  short  accounts  of  other  Mora- 
vian missions;  and  Pyrlaeus  translated  German  hymns  into 
the  Mohegan,  the  beginning  of  a  collection  for  use  in  divine 
worship.  Philological  contributions  from  his  pen,  still  unpub- 
lished, are  deposited  in  the  library  of  the  American  Philosophi- 
cal Society,  at  Philadelphia. 


LBCT.VII.]  ZEISBERGER'S  DEATH.  305 

in  Jesus ;  and  then  they  sobbed  aloud.  He  had 
reached  his  eighty-eighth  year,1  and  had  seen 
sixty-two  years  of  missionary  labor.  No  white 
man  ever  preached  the  gospel  among  Indians 
for  so  long  a  time,  or  under  trials  and  discour- 
agements so  great.  During  the  last  twoscore 
years  of  his  life,  he  was  never  absent  from  his 
flock  for  any  length  of  time,  and  visited  friends 
in  the  Middle  States  only  twice.  Estimating  a 
missionary  by  the  courage,  skill,  devotedness  and 
perseverance  which  he  shows,  and  by  the  priva- 
tion which  he  endures,  David  Zeisberger's  name 
is  entitled  to  a  place  among  those  who  head 
the  long  roll  of  evangelical  worthies.  Is  it  cred- 
itable to  the  intelligence  of  religious  commu- 
nities in  America  that  no  more  is  known  regard- 
ing him? 


1  There  were  other  instances  of  longevity  among  Moravian 
missionaries  to  the  Indians,  as  John  Peter  Kluge,  who  died 
in  his  eighty-first  year  (1840);  John  George  Jungmann  and 
Adam  Grube,  who  died  the  same  year  as  Zeisberger,  respec- 
tively eighty-one  and  ninety-two. 

20 


LECTURE  VIII. 

NORTH-AMERICAN  INDIANS, 

CONCLUDED. 


NORTH-AMERICAN  INDIANS. 

CONCLUDED. 


MORAVIAN  labors  among  the  North-American 
Indians  were  not  an  isolated  enterprise  of  en- 
thusiastic individuals.  However  slightly  appre- 
ciated by  the  English  colonists  of  that  day,  this 
movement  filled  a  large  place  in  the  hearts  and 
prayers  of  a  little  community  in  Central  Europe. 
Bishops  resident  in  this  country,  as  Hehl,  Ett- 
wein  and  Seidel,  gave  much  attention  to  mis- 
sionary work.  Able  men  came  over  as  visitors, 
partly  or  wholly  in  the  interest  of  this  work  — 
Nitschmann,  a  native  of  the  same  place  as  Zeis- 
berger,  and  the  first  Bishop  of  the  Renewed 
Moravian  Church;  CammerhofF,  an  alumnus  of 
the  University  of  Jena,  well  acquainted  with  the 
church  fathers  and  with  the  history  of  philoso- 
phy ;  Bohler,  who  studied  at  the  Universities  of 
Jena  and  Leipzig,  who  crossed  the  Atlantic  seven 
times,  and  to  whom  instrum en  tally  John  Wesley 
owed  his  conversion  ;  Loskiel,  author  of  a  history 
of  these  missionary  labors;  and  Spangenberg, 
who  had  been  a  professor  at  Halle,  well  known 
as  an  author,  a  scholar,  a  man  of  wisdom,  and  a 

(309) 


310  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VUI. 

man  of  affairs.  Other  personages  of  note  also 
crossed  the  Atlantic  for  a  similar  purpose  —  the 
Baron  John  von  Watteville,  a  graduate  at  Jena, 
who  visited  stations  in  the  Indian  country,  was 
adopted  among  the  Iroquois,  and,  on  his  second 
visit  to  America  (1784),  remained  three  years ; 
as  well  as  Count  Zinzendorf — accompanied  by  his 
daughter,  the  Countess  Benigna,  and  by  Anna 
Nitschmann  —  who  made  several  tours,  attended 
with  much  fatigue  and  hardship,  among  the 
native  tribes,  to  whom  he  preached  through  an 
interpreter.  In  their  third  journey  of  this  kind 
they  were  out  forty-nine  days,  camping  under 
the  open  heavens,  in  a  savage  wilderness.  At 
Shekomeko,  the  Count  assisted  in  forming  the 
earliest  Moravian  church  composed  of  converted 
Indians  (1742).  It  is  believed  that  he  was  the 
first  white  man  who  ever  entered  the  Wyoming 
Valley. 

What  the  United  Brethren  effected  in  the  way 
of  civilization  among  aboriginal  tribes  was  by 
no  means  inconsiderable.  Statements  relating  to 
the  introduction  of  a  literature  into  vernacular 
tongues  have  already  been  made.  To  reduce  a 
language  to  writing  always  implies,  among  Prot- 
estant missions,  and  not  least  among  Moravian 
missions,  the  establishment  of  schools.  Such  was 
the  case  everywhere,  so  far  as  practicable.  At 
New  Salem,  Northern  Ohio,  for  instance,  Zeis- 
berger  opened  three,  in  which  he  himself  gave 


PROGRESS   EN  CIVILIZATION.  311 

daily  instruction  to  a  hundred  pupils,  some  of 
them  adults  who  were  desirous  of  learning  to 
read  and  write.  Christian  towns  were  laid  out 
with  regularity  and  neatness ;  and,  though  hunt- 
ing was  not  wholly  abandoned,  the  raising  of 
grain,  cattle  and  poultry  enlisted  the  interest 
of  converts  largely.  Under  the  lead  of  the 
missionary  just  named,  thirteen  villages  sprang 
up,  where  tokens  of  a  condition  greatly  improved 
upon  the  wild  native  state  soon  showed  them- 
selves. The  purchaser  of  their  improvements 
at  New  Gnadenhiitten  in  Michigan,  for  which 
four  hundred  dollars  were  paid,  declared  that 
the  Christian  Indians  had  effected  more  in  three 
years  than  the  French  settlers  had  in  twenty.1 
When,  at  an  earlier  date  (1781),  they  had  been 
compelled  to  abandon  Salem  in  the  Tuscarawas 
Valley,  Ohio,  they  left  behind  rich  plantations, 
with  five  thousand  busfoels  of  unharvested  corn, 
hundreds  of  young  cattle,  gardens  stocked  with 
vegetables,  and  all  their  implements  of  industry. 
In  each  of  the  three  settlements  thus  left  was 
a  commodious  house  for  worship.  The  chapel 
at  Schonbrunn  could  receive  five  hundred  per- 
sons, and  still  was  often  too  small  to  accommo- 
date all  who  wished  to  worship  there  (1775). 
The  religious  prosperity  of  that  place  particu- 
larly became  known  throughout  the  Northwest, 

1  Life  and  Times  of  Zeisbcrger,  589. 


312  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [utcr.vm. 

and  was  the  wonder  of  traders  and  other  white 
visitors.  That,  it  is  true,  was  one  of  the  palmy 
periods. 

Seasons  of  marked  spiritual  interest  occurred. 
Considering  the  thoroughly  savage  state  of  the 
Indians,  their  characteristic  reserve  and  stoical 
habits,  it  is  specially  a  matter  of  surprise  that 
revivals  should  take  place  among  them.  Soon 
after  the  settlement  had  been  begun  at  Machiwi- 
hilusing  (1765),  Zeisberger  writes:  "For  sev- 
eral months  a  great  revival  has  been  prevailing 
among  the  wild  Indians  who  visit  here.  All 
those  who  attend  our  services  are  deeply  im- 
pressed, and  cannot  hear  too  much  of  the  Sav- 
iour. It  often  happens,  while  I  preach,  that  the 
power  of  the  gospel  takes  such  hold  of  them 
that  they  tremble  with  emotion  and  shake  with 
fear,  until  consciousness  is  nearly  gone,  and  they 
seem  to  be  on  the  point,of  fainting."1  Strange 
phenomenon,  indeed,  was  it  to  see  these  wild 
men  of  the  woods  weeping  under  the  influence 
of  divine  truth.  They  came  from  far  and  near; 
and,  as  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  different  nation- 
alities were  represented,  so  Mohawks,  Cayugas, 
Senecas,  Nanticokes  and  Wampanoags  now  "  heard 
the  wonderful  works  of  God."  Afterwards,  our 
missionary  acquired  such  influence  over  the  Mon- 
seys,  at  their  town,  Friedensstadt,  beyond  the 

1  Life  and  Times  of  Zeisberger,  813. 


IJZCT.VIII.]  NATIVE  ASSISTANTS.  313 

Alleghanies,  that  he  was  naturalized  among  them, 
and  allowed  to  preach  the  gospel  with  great 
freedom  (1770).  An  awakening  occurred ;  meet- 
ings for  inquiry  were  held  every  evening,  some- 
times continuing  till  midnight;  and  conversions 
took  place,  children  also  being  wrought  upon. 
Two  years  later,  similar  interest  was  manifested 
at  the  Delaware  capital.  Four  years  go  by,  and 
a  season  of  general  interest  begins  among  the 
children  in  the  Tuscarawas  Valley  (1776).  After 
a  decade  or  more,  New  Salem,  on  the  shore  of 
Lake  Erie,  was  the  scene  of  a  pervading  revival 
(1788).  Delawares,  Chippewas,  Ottawas,  and  a 
sprinkling  of  Wyandots,  crowd  to  church.  Yet 
another  decade  goes  over  them,  and  a  special 
visitation  of  grace  is  experienced  by  Zeisberger's 
colony,  their  settlement  then  being  at  Fan-field, 
Canada  (1797).  Profound  seriousness  prevailed  ; 
there  were  deep  searchings  of  heart,  accompanied 
by  confession  and  manifest  penitence. 

Advance  in  mission  work,  whatever  the  method 
and  whatever  the  field,  is  to  be  estimated  partly 
by  the  character  of  native  helpers  who  are  raised 
up.  Did  the  United  Brethren  witness  any  en- 
couraging development  of  the  aboriginal  capacity 
in  this  direction?  That  question  has  already  re- 
ceived answer  in  part  by  the  case  of  Tschoop, 
one  of  -the  two  earliest  converts,  whose  trans- 
formation is  hardly  surpassed  by  any  other  in 
the  whole  range  of  mission  history.  Coutein- 


314  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLKCT.  vm. 

porary  with  him  was  Nicodemus,  a  man  of  dis- 
tinguished character,  and  his  conversion  a  miracle 
of  grace.1  As  a  heathen,  he  was  exceeded  by 
none  in  evil  practices,  and  was  much  given  to 
drunkenness.  From  a  turbulent  spirit,  he  became 
patient  and  lowly ;  in  his  walk  and  conversation 
an  example  to  all,  so  that  whoever  knew  him 
before,  beheld  him  now  with  amazement.  By 
degrees  he  became  much  enlightened  in  the 
truths  of  the  gospel,  and  was  appointed  Elder 
of  the  congregation  at  Gnadenhiitten,  in  which 
office  he  was  universally  respected.  Once,  while 
looking  at  the  mill,  he  addressed  the  missionary : 
"  Brother,  I  discover  something  that  rejoices  my 
heart.  I  have  seen  the  great  wheel  and  many 
little  ones;  every  one  was  in  motion  and  seemed 
all  alive ;  but  suddenly  all  stopped,  and  the  mill 
was  as  if  dead.  I  then  thought,  surely  all  de- 
pends upon  one  wheel;  if  the  water  runs  upon 
that,  everything  else  is  alive ;  but,  when  that 
ceases  to  flow,  all  appears  dead.  Just  so  it  is 
with  my  heart ;  it  is  dead  as  the  wheel ;  but,  as 
soon  as  Jesus'  blood  flows  upon  it,  it  gets  life, 
and  sets  everything  in  motion,  and,  the  whole 
man  being  governed  by  it,  it  becomes  evident 
that  there  is  life  throughout.  But,  when  the 
heart  is  removed  from  the  crucified  Jesus,  it  dies 
gradually,  and  at  length  all  life  ceases.'.'2  That 

1  Baptized  1742. 

8  Moravian  Missions  to  North-A  merican  Indians,  104. 


LKCT.VHM  NATIVE   ASSISTANTS.  315 

was  by  no  means  a  solitary  instance.  Valuable 
men  from  among  the  Delawares  also  came  for- 
ward, who  preached  with  boldness.  Such  was 
Anthony.1  An  orator  by  nature,  he  gave  testi- 
mony for  years  in  a  consistent  life.  Zeisberger 
says:  "Anthony  was  as  eager  to  bring  souls  to 
Christ  as  a  hunter's  hound  is  eager  to  chase  the 
deer."  Take  a  single  specimen.  Glikkikan  —  a 
warrior  who  has  won  fame  in  many  a  battle 
among  the  Indians,  and  in  the  contest  between 
the  French  and  the  English,  whose  reputation 
as  a  speaker  is  unsurpassed,  who  has  silenced 
the  Jesuits  in  an  encounter  with  them  —  comes 
to  the  mission-house  at  Lawunakhannek,  on  the 
Alleghany  River,  and  for  the  express  purpose  of 
vanquishing  the  Christian  teacher  in  argument. 
Anthony  opens :  "  My  friends,  hear  me ;  I  will 
tell  you  a  great  thing.  God  made  the  heavens, 
the  earth,  and  all  things  that  are  in  them ;  noth- 
ing exists  which  God  has  not  made."  After 
pausing  a  little,  he  continues :  "  God  has  created 
us;  but  who  of  us  knows  his  Creator?  Not  one! 
I  tell  you  the  truth,  not  one  I  For  we  have  fallen 
away  from  God;  we  are  polluted  creatures;  our 
minds  are  darkened  by  sin."  Here  he  sits  down, 
and,  after  the  Indian  manner,  is  silent  a  long  time. 
Suddenly  rising,  he  exclaims:  "That  God,  who 
made  all  things  and  created  us,  came  into  the 

1  Baptized  1750 ;  died  1773,  in  his  seventy-seventh  year 


316  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VIII. 

world  in  the  form  and  fashion  of  a  man.  Why 
did  he  thus  come  into  the  world  ?  Think  of 
this !  "  After  a  while  he  resumes :  "  I  will  show 
you.  God  became  a  man,  and  took  upon  him 
flesh  and  blood,  in  order  that,  as  man,  he  might 
reconcile  the  world  unto  himself.  By  his  bitter 
death  on  the  cross,  he  procured  for  us  life  and 
eternal  salvation,  redeeming  us  from  sin,  from 
death,  and  from  the  power  of  the  Devil."  Glik- 
kikan  had  nothing  to  say  in  the  way  of  contro- 
versy, but  urged  his  people  to  go  and  hear  the 
gospel.1  He  soon  avowed  the  purpose  of  em- 
bracing Christianity  himself;  counting  the  cost, 
he  took  the  step  deliberately,  became  an  efficient 
coadjutor  of  the  mission,  and  finally  perished  in 
the  massacre  of  Christian  Indians  at  Gnadenhiit- 
ten. 

Other  chiefs  of  note  came  under  the  saving 
power  of  truth.  Among  those  was  Shikellimy 
(died  1748),  an  Iroquois  sachem,  father  of  the 
celebrated  Logan ;  Echpalawchund,  a  noted  Dela- 
ware chief,  whose  conversion  caused  a  great  out- 
burst of  anger  in  his  tribe  (died  1774) ;  and 
Netawatwes  (died  1776),  head  sachem  of  the 
Dela wares.  But  for  the  great  change  in  him, 
his  people,  in  common  with  the  other  tribes, 
would  no  doubt  have  lifted  the  hatchet  against 
the  neighboring  colonists,,  and  have  fearfully  en- 

1  Life  of  Zeisberger,  356. 


LBCT.VIII.]  HEATHEN  PREACHERS.  317 

hanced  the  losses  and  sufferings  of  white  settlers. 
Another  in  that  list  was  Geleleraend,1  a  grandson 
of  Netawatwes,  who  came  to  the  headship  of  the 
nation  and  remained  faithful  to  the  Americans. 
Nor  was  it  the  youthful  and  middle-aged  alone 
who  embraced  Christianity.  Keposh,  who  had 
been  head  chief  of  the  Delaware  nation,  received 
baptism  when  near  eighty;  and  the  grandfather 
of  a  chief  called  George  Rex  was  admitted  to 
the  church  at  one  hundred  years  of  age. 

"Priests  too  were  obedient  to  the  faith."  About 
the  middle  of  the  last  century  there  arose,  especially 
among  the  Delaware  Indians,  a  class  of  men  claim- 
ing to  be  prophets,  who,  like  Mohammed  and  Swe- 
denborg,  pretended  to  be  translated  at  times  to 
heaven,  and  to  have  immediate  revelations  from 
the  Great  Spirit.  It  was  manifestly  a  device  to 
counteract  the  influence  of  Christianity,  from 
which  some  ideas  were  borrowed,  in  order  to  super- 
sede it.  The  magicians  would  fain  "  do  so  with 
their  enchantments."  At  first  they  taught  a  mor- 
ality superior  to  that  prevailing  among  their  peo- 
ple, but  soon  failed  in  practice  themselves.  They 
anticipated  the  Mormonism  of  our  days,  alleging 
that  on  their  part  polygamy  was  a  work  of  mercy, 
because  union  with  such  eminent  friends  of  the 
Great  Spirit  as  they  were  would  contribute  to 
the  salvation  of  women.  Another  dogma  taught 

1  Baptized  1788 ;  died  1811,  aged  seventy -four. 


318  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.VIII. 

by  these  Manicheans  of  the  woods  was,  that,  in 
order  to  be  saved,  one  must  beat  out  his  sins  with 
twelve  rods  of  as  many  different  kinds  of  wood, 
beginning  at  the  feet  and  working  upward,  till 
all  iniquities  issued  suddenly  from  the  neck;  or 
else  one  must  completely  expel  sins  by  twelve 
various  emetics.  It  is  as  suggestive  as  it  is  ludi- 
crous to  find  what  a  hold  this  absurd  asceticism 
gained  upon  rude  minds,  and  how  many  savages 
set  themselves  to  attain  sanctification  by  switches, 
sinless  perfection  by  exhaustive  vomiting.  Among 
the  leaders  of  that  pestilent  sect  was  one  Papun- 
hank ; '  but,  when  Zeisberger  preached  three  days  in 
succession  to  this  Simon  Magus  of  Machiwihilu- 
sing  and  his  followers,  they  were  deeply  wrought 
upon.  Turning  to  him,  the  missionary  exclaimed, 
"  Brother,  what  have  you  to  say  to  this  people  ?  " 
"Nothing,"  was  his  answer,  "except  that  they 
shall  listen  to  their  new  teachers."  Papunhank 
became  a  new  man ;  his  penitence  was  profound, 
his  distress  of  mind  waxing  so  great  that  he  could 
neither  eat  nor  sleep.  When  the  time  for  baptism 
came  (June  17, 1763),  in  the  presence  of  his  former 
deluded  followers,  he  uttered  this  voluntary  con- 
fession :  "  The  Saviour  has  made  me  feel  my  mis- 
ery and  utterly  depraved  state.  I  used  to  preach 
to  you.  I  imagined  myself  a  good  man  ;  I  did  not 
know  that  I  was  the  greatest  sinner  among  you 

1  Died  1775. 


LKCT.VIII.]  POWER   OF  TRUTH.  319 

all.  Brothers,  forgive  and  forget  everything  I 
have  said  and  done."  He  was  afterwards  a  faith- 
ful assistant  of  the  mission. 

As  is  the  case,  no  doubt,  wherever  evangelistic 
work  continues  for  a  length  of  time,  some  are  sav- 
ingly reached  by  the  truth  who  never  come  to  be 
known  to  the  missionary ;  so  it  has  been,  we  may 
well  suppose,  among  the  red  men  for  whom  Mo- 
ravians labored.  Some  also,  as  in  older  Chris- 
tian countries,  without  becoming  church-members, 
become  comparatively  valuable  members  of  the 
community.  Such  notably  was  Paxnous,  a  Sha- 
wanese  chief  (whose  wife  confessed  Christ),  who 
remained  faithful  to  the  colonies ;  and  White 
Eyes,  a  Delaware  captain,  whose  ability  as  a  man, 
good  will  to  the  mission,  and  fidelity  to  the  colon- 
ists, caused  his  death  to  be  deeply  deplored  (1778). 

But  there  were  so  many  men  in  the  last  and  the 
previous  century,  to  say  nothing  of  the  present 
day,  who  accounted  the  Indian  hardly  a  human 
being,  who  practically  denied  that  he  was  capable 
of  salvation  or  was  worth  saving,  that  it  may  be 
well  to  glance  at  the  red  man's  experiences  when 
gospel  truth  came  to  bear  upon  him.  Did  his 
heart  and  life  indicate  a  share  in  our  common 
humanity  and  in  the  great  salvation  ?  Torpid  as 
were  their  sensibilities  and  conscience,  yet  the 
felt  sense  of  guiltiness  could  move  them  when 
nothing  else  would.  "Brethren,"  said  an  aged 
chief  at  Gnadenhiitten,  "  we  are  altogether  buried 


MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.VIII. 

in  sin ;  have  patience  with  us ;  in  the  course  of  a 
year  or  two,  a  change  may  take  place.  We  are 
like  colts  in  training.  Your  words  please  us 
much.  We  feel  something  in  our  hearts,  and, 
though  we  do  not  comprehend  it  all,  we  shall 
understand  it  by  degrees,  but  our  motions  are 
slow."  One  haughty  war-captain,  after  attend- 
ing church  and  listening  to  a  discourse  on  the 
heinousness  of  sin  and  the  grace  of  Jesus  Christ, 
went  through  the  village  to  his  hut  sobbing  aloud 
in  the  presence  of  his  associates.  Said  another 
Indian:  "Whenever  I  saw  a  man  shed  tears,  I 
used  to  doubt  his  being  a  man.  I  would  not  have 
wept  if  my  enemies  had  even  cut  the  flesh  from 
my  bones,  so  hard  was  my  heart  at  that  time; 
that  I  now  weep  is  of  God,  who  has  softened  the 
hardness  of  my  heart." 

Was  the  conviction  such  as  led  to  a  reformed 
life?  The  chief  of  the  Cayugas  told  Zeisberger 
that  he  had  seen  many  Indians  baptized  by  the 
French  in  Canada,  but  never  found  the  least  dif- 
ference between  them  and  the  unbaptized.  With 
some  exceptions,  that  could  not  be  said  of  those 
who  had  received  the  ordinance  at  the  hands  of 
Moravian  missionaries.  The  appointment  of  over- 
seers of  morals,  and  the  rules  adopted  by  converts, 
are  suggestive.  Take  a  selection  from  them :  "  We 
will  know  of  no  other  God,  nor  worship  any  other, 
but  him  who  has  created  us  and  redeemed  us  with 
his  most  precious  blood."  "  We  will  rest  from  all 


LBCT.VIII.]  CHRISTIAN  LIFE.  321 

labor  on  Sundays,  and  attend  the  usual  meetings 
on  that  day  for  divine  service."  "  We  will  honor 
father  and  mother,  and  support  them  in  age  and 
distress."  "  We  will  renounce  all  juggleries,  lies, 
and  deceits  of  Satan."  "  We  will  not  permit  any 
rum  or  spirituous  liquors  to  be  bought  in  our  town. 
If  strangers  or  traders  happen  to  bring  any,  the 
helpers  (national  assistants)  are  to  take  it  into 
their  possession,  and  take  care  not  to  deliver  it  to 
them  until  they  set  off  again."  "  None  of  the  in- 
habitants shall  run  into  debt  with  the  traders,  nor 
receive  goods  on  commission  for  traders,  without 
the  consent  of  the  national  assistants." 

When  the  colony  of  Christian  Indians  were  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Detroit  (1786),  the  traders  of 
that  place  found  them  strictly  honest,  and  never 
refused  them  credit,  being  sure  of  punctual  pay- 
ment ;  and,  though  some  had  run  heavily  in  debt, 
still,  before  leaving  the  neighborhood,  by  stren- 
uous effort,  they  had  discharged  every  obligation. 
Years  previous  to  that  (1750),  so  changed  were 
Bishop  Qammerhoff's  "brown  sheep,"  as  he  used 
to  call  his  converts,  that  the  neighboring  warriors 
demanded,  "  What  have  you  done  to  our  brothers 
that  they  are  so  entirely  different  from  us,  and 
from  what  they  used  to  be  ?  What  is  this  bap- 
tism which  has  made  them  turn  from  our  feasts 
and  dances,  and  shun  all  our  ways  ?  " 

How  did  these  men,  so  lately  men  of  blood, 
men  of  unbridled  revenge,  stand  the  test  of  re- 

21 


322  MORAVIAN    MISSIONS.  [LECT.VIII. 

preaches  and  injuries,  one  of  the  severer  tests 
of  professing  Christians,  whatever  their  complex- 
ion, and  whatever  the  place  they  hold  in  the 
scale  of  civilization  ?  On  a  brave  warrior's  receiv- 
ing baptism,  his  indignant  chief  denounced  him : 
"And  have  you  gone  to  the  Christian  teachers, 
from  our  very  council?  What  do  you  want  of 
them  ?  Do  you  hope  to  get  a  white  skin  ?  Not 
so  much  as  one  of  your  feet  will  turn  white ; 
how,  then,  can  your  whole  skin  be  changed  ? 
Were  you  riot  a  brave  man  ?  Were  you  not 
an  honorable  councilor?  Did  you  not  sit  at 
my  side  in  this  house,  with  a  blanket  before  you, 
and  a  pile  of  wampum  belts  on  it,  and  help  me 
direct  the  affairs  of  our  nation  ?  And  now  you 
despise  all  this.  You  think  you  have  found 
something  better.  Wait !  in  good  time  you  will 
discover  how  miserably  you  have  been  deceived." 
Glikkikan  answered:  "You  are  right;  I  have 
joined  the  Brethren.  Where  they  go  I  will  go; 
where  they  lodge  I  will  lodge.  Nothing  shall 
separate  me  from  them.  Their  people,  shall  be 
my  people,  and  their  God  my  God." x  The  same 
man,  when  seized  by  enraged  savages,  said  to 
them :  "  There  was  a  time  when  I  never  would 
have  yielded  myself  prisoner  to  any  man ;  but 
that  was  when  I  lived  in  heathenish  darkness  and 
knew  not  God.  Now  I  am  converted  to  him,  I 

1  Life  of  Zeisberger,  362. 


MOT.  vino  CONSTANCY.  .        323 

suffer  willingly  for  Christ's  sake."  So  saying, 
he  allowed  himself  to  be  bound  and  led  away 
amidst  fearful  scalping-whoops.  Instances  might 
be  given  of  fervent  prayer  for  enemies.  A  spirit 
of  special  and  more  general  supplication  was 
witnessed.  It  is  an  interesting  circumstance  that, 
even  in  the  earliest  Moravian  labors  at  Sheko- 
meko  (1743),  daily  meetings  were  held  and  a 
monthly  prayer-day  established,  when  accounts 
of  mission  progress  in  different  parts  of  the  world 
were  communicated,  and  petitions  offered  in  be- 
half of  all  men — occasions  that  were  peculiarly 
enjoyed  by  the  Indians.  Should  not  devout  de- 
sires and  efforts  for  the  spread  of  Christian  truth 
be,  at  the  present  time,  more  often  looked  for  as 
evidence  of  Christian  standing? 

Not  unfrequently  did  the  baptized  natives,  and 
that,  too,  outside  the  circle  of  professional  helpers, 
show  commendable  firmness  and  boldness  in  their 
new  position.  "  My  people,"  said  a  Nanticoke 
chieftain,  "have,  indeed,  taken  away  my  belts 
and  strings  of  wampum ;  but  they  were  obliged 
to  leave  me  that  understanding  which  God  has 
given  me ;  and  I  may  still  make  use  of  it,  as  I 
please,  to  do  good."  At  another  time,  one  ob- 
served :  "  That  I  have  lost  all  my  property  and 
am  poor,  that  my  cattle  are  dead,  that  I  must 
suffer  hunger  —  all  this  I  bear  and  complain  not ; 
but  that  our  enemies  are  about  to  deprive  us 
of  our  teachers,  and  keep  food  from  our  souls  — 


324  MOK AVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VIII. 

this  I  cannot  bear ;  it  deeply  wounds  my  heart. 
They  shall,  however,  see  that  I  will  have  no 
communion  with  them,  and  will  not  be  enticed 
back  to  heathenism."1  When  an  associate  was 
trying  to  dissuade  a  convert  from  saying  any- 
thing about  his  new  religion,  lest  it  might  cost 
his  life,  he  replied :  "If  my  life  is  in  danger,  I 
will  the  more  cheerfully  witness  of  the  truth. 
Do  you  imagine  that  a  baptized  Indian  fears 
your  sorceries  as  he  did  when  he  was  a  heathen, 
and  that  he  will  hesitate  to  make  known  what 
the  Saviour  has  done  for  him  and  for  all  men? 
No !  While  I  live,  I  will  not  hold  my  peace, 
but  proclaim  salvation.  This  is  the  command 
of  God." 2  In  the  light  of  such  testimony,  what 
shall  be  thought  of  the  atrocious  utterance  — 
"  There  is  no  good  Indian  but  a  dead  In- 
dian ?  " 

Can  any  one  question  the  genuineness  of  these 
evidences  that,  through  the  agency  of  the  United 
Brethren,  Christianity  took  a  firm  hold  of  the 
red  man?  During  the  four  years  of  his  labor, 
Bishop  CammerhofT  (who  died  1751)  alone  bap- 
tized eighty-nine  converts.  Up  to  1772,  the 
catalogue  showed  a  list  of  seven  hundred  and 
twenty  persons  who  had  been  introduced  into 
the  visible  church;3  and  the  Moravians  were 

1  Life  of  Zeisberger,  534. 

2  Ibid,  442. 

3  Loskiel,  Geschichte  der  Mission,  774. 


LKCT.VIII.]  CULMINATING  PERIOD.  325 

much  more  anxious  to  secure  genuine  conver- 
sions than  to  swell  the  number  of  converts  re- 
ported.1 At  the  close  of  1775,  there  were  four 
hundred  and  fourteen  believing  Indians  who 
lived  at  three  neighboring  settlements  in  Ohio 
alone.  Frequent  accessions  to  the  church  took 
place,  and  the  members  made  gratifying  progress 
in  religious  knowledge  and  life.  Indeed,  at  that 
time,  Christianity  was  coming  to  have  a  dominant 
influence  among  the  Delawares.  The  Grand 
Council  passed  an  edict  not  only  granting  full 
liberty  to  the  new  religion,  but  recommending 
its  adoption  by  the  whole  nation,  as  well  as  other 
enabling  and  confirmatory  edicts.  The  fickle 
and  apostate  Monseys  felt  the  subduing  grace 
of  God.  Nor  was  it  one  of  the  least  striking 
proofs  of  what  the  gospel  can  effect,  that  a  race 
of  savage  hunters  were  accepting  the  restraints 
of  civilized  life  and  the  demands  of  regulated 
industry.  There  was  an  encouraging  prospect 
that  the  entire  Delaware  people  would  in  a  few 
years  become  truly  Christianized. 

If  then,  it  will  be  asked,  such  a  hope  had  any 
reasonable  grounds,  if  the  meeting-house  and  the 
school-house  evinced  the  zeal  and  tact  of  Mora- 
vian missionaries  wherever  they  planted  them- 


1  Dass  unsere  Misstonare  nicht  sowohl  einen  grossen  Haufen 
(jetanften  Heiden,  als  vielmehr  wahrhaftig  gldubige  Seelen  Christo 
sufiirhen  wollen.  Ibid,  776. 


326  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VIH. 

selves,  what  became  of  the  fruits?  What  was  the 
issue  of  all  the  toils,  privations  and  successes 
of  these  Christian  philanthropists  ?  An  answer 
is  at  hand.  We  have  only  to  keep  in  mind  the 
character  of  the  red  man,  and  the  condition  of 
that  period,  to  find  a  solution  most  sad  and 
painfully  adequate.  The  Indian  was  a  sullen, 
apathetic  being,  with  no  government  of  any  kind, 
domestic  or  otherwise,  and  with  no  laws  except 
those  of  custom.  He  was  a  fierce,  overgrown, 
ungoverned  youth;  and,  by  immemorial  usage, 
butchery  had  been  his  element.  Not  the  white 
wampum  of  peace,  but  the  red  wampum  of  war, 
was  his  favorite  symbol.  He  was  a  brutal  savage, 
sternly  vindictive  and  cruel.  "Not  one  in  a 
thousand  has  the  spirit  of  a  man,"  says  the  char- 
itable, heavenly-minded  Brainerd.  Contact  with 
white  men  generally  led  to  the  imitation  of  noth- 
ing so  soon  as  their  vices,  and  with  eminent  speed 
their  intemperance.  As  is  the  case  everywhere 
among  ruder  races,  ardent  spirits  fearfully  mad- 
dened and  imbruted  the  Indian,  proving  more 
destructive  than  their  constant  wars.  Even  the 
better  class  of  white  men,  with  whom  they  had 
dealings,  were  largely  blind  to  their  own  incon- 
sistencies, and  to  the  demoniacal  tyranny  of  this 
agent  over  creatures  possessing  little  power  of 
resistance.  When  the  sachems  of  the  Iroquois 
Confederacy  met  Sir  William  Johnson  at  Onon- 
daga  in  1753,  he  declaimed  with  earnestness 


LKOT.VIII.]  INDIAN  CHARACTER.  327 

against  the  vice  of  intemperance ;  then,  at  the 
close  of  negotiations,  distributed  rum  so  freely 
that  the  concourse  became  intoxicated,  and  Zeis- 
berger  and  his  companion  had  to  flee  for  their 
lives.1  What,  then,  would  naturally  be,  what 
in  point  of  fact  was,  the  influence  of  colonial 
land-jobbers,  traders  and  hunters,  who  were  so 
wholly  destitute  of  principle  ?  Debased  savages 
became  yet  more  debased.  Between  white  des- 
peradoes and  the  victims  of  their  unscrupulous 
cupidity,  mutual  distrust  was  a  fixed  result. 
"  Oh,  certainly,"  retorted  a  Shawanese,  with  tell- 
ing irony,  "Oh,  certainly,  they  are  better  than 
we  !  —  wiser  in  teaching  men  to  get  drunk  ;  wiser 
in  overreaching  men ;  wiser  in  swindling  men  of 
their  land ;  wiser  in  defrauding  them  of  all  their 
possessions."  Upon  deeds  of  violence  retaliation 
would  ensue,  till,  in  the  border-land  of  frontier  life, 
the  sentiment  prevailed  that  an  Indian  had  no  more 
soul  than  a  buffalo,  and  he  was  shot  with  scarcely 
less  compunction  than  the  panther  or  the  bear. 
Now,  what  can  reasonably  be  demanded  of  a  mere 
handful  of  Germans,  however  faithful  in  their 
endeavors  to  evangelize  such  a  race,  under  such 
circumstances  ?  Shall  it  be  claimed  of  Chris- 
tianity that  it  produce  immediately,  upon  such 
subjects,  those  effects  for  which  elsewhere  genera- 
tions are  needed? 

1  Life  of  Zeisberger,  211,  212. 


328  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.THI. 

There  were  yet  other  considerations  pecul- 
iarly unfavorable  for  the  moral  elevation  of  the 
red  men.  One  was  the  frequent  removals  to 
which  the  settlements  of  Christian  Indians  were 
subject.  We  have  seen  how  the  persecuting 
legislation  of  New  York  drove  the  missionaries 
from  their  field  in  that  colony  to  Pennsylvania, 
and  that  many  of  their  converts  followed  them ; 
but  the  French  and  Indian  War  gave  rise  to 
suspicions  and  false  accusations,  which  occa- 
sioned their  being  disarmed  and  taken  to  Phila- 
delphia, where,  with  great  difficulty,  they  were 
shielded  from  the  violence  of  an  armed  mob,  and 
where  one  half  of  them  died.  An  effort  to  re- 
move them  thence  to  New  York  failed,  the  Gov- 
ernor issuing  strict  orders  that  they  should  not 
set  foot  within  the  colony.  Returning  to  their 
old  home  at  Nain,  in  Lehigh  County,  they  were 
not  allowed  to  remain  there,  but  were  sent 
(1765)  to  Machiwihilusiug,  a  five  weeks'  journey 
through  forests,  swamps  and  rivers,  women  and 
children  being  at  times  famished.  They  were 
compelled  to  migrate  successively  from  the 
Valley  of  the  Delaware  to  that  of  the  Susque- 
hanna,  from  the  Susquehanna  to  the  Valley  of  the 
Alleghany,  thence  a  hundred  miles  west  from  Pitts- 
burg  into  Ohio  (1772).  After  eight  years  of  indus- 
try and  of  religious  prosperity,  they  are  suddenly 
seized,  and  as  prisoners  marched  to  San  dusky. 
Thereafter  they  effect  a  settlement  at  New  Gna- 


I.BCT.  vino  WAES.  329 

denhiitten.  To  another  resting-place,  where  these 
pilgrims  could  enjoy  only  "a  night  lodge,"  they 
gave  the  name  of  Pilgerruh ;  but  the  peace  afford- 
ed them  at  New  Salem,  in  Erie  County,  was 
short-lived ;  and  they  were  compelled  to  migrate 
into  Canada  (1791).  Their  four  years'  stay  in 
Michigan  was  a  cruel  exile.  The  erection  of 
chapels  for  worship,  titles  to  lands,  agricultural 
and  other  improvements,  gave  them  nowhere  any 
guarantee  of  permanency.  Removals  alone  could 
be  depended  upon.  Had  all  the  circumstances 
attending  such  changes  been  favorable,  how  much 
of  civilization  and  Christian  life  could  have  been 
effected !  What  growth  or  fruitage  do  we  look 
for  in  a  tree  that  is  often  rudely  plucked  up,  and 
in  every  instance  imperfectly  replanted  ?  But 
their  migrations  were  compulsory;  no  alluring 
prospect  beyond  personal  safety,  and  very  seldom 
even  that,  drew  them  from  one  spot  to  another. 
It  was  an  unresisting  little  community,  with  its 
Christian  teachers,  running  the  gauntlet  between 
files  of  Indian  and  white  enemies.  The  only 
wonder  is  that  every  vestige  of  improvement  was 
not  effaced. 

Inter  arma  silent  leges,  observes  Cicero.  The 
Moravian  missionaries  and  the  Christian  Dela- 
wares  found  repeatedly  that  natural  and  civic 
rights  avail  but  little  under  martial  law,  which 
is  often  merely  the  law  of  arbitrary  violence. 
It  was  war,  as  we  have  seen,  which  broke  up 


330  MOKAVIAN  MISSIONS. 

the  first  Moravian  settlement  and  missionary 
effort  in  Georgia.  For  nearly  three  decades, 
from  1755  onward,  there  was  no  lasting  relief  — 
there  was  only  partial  and  local  relief — from  the 
apprehension  or  actual  storm  of  conflict.  The 
French  and  Indian  War,  the  Conspiracy  of  Pon- 
tiac,  the  protracted  Pennamite  and  Yankee  broil 
in  the  Valley  of  Wyoming,  and  the  long  struggle 
of  our  Revolutionary  period,  all  told  with  amaz- 
ing effect  upon  Christian  labor.  The  very  day 
of  Braddock's  defeat  (July  9,  1775)  found  Zeis- 
berger  and  Seidel  carrying  food  to  the  famished 
red  men  of  Wyoming.  The  eighth  of  September 
the  same  year  was  the  date  of  Count  Dieskau's 
defeat  near  Lake  St.  George,  and  of  an  enthusi- 
astic missionary  conference,  consisting  of  four 
bishops,  sixteen  missionaries  and  eighteen  female 
assistants,  at  Bethlehem,  who  pledged  themselves 
to  pursue  their  evangelistic  labors  so  long  as 
possible,  in  spite  of  wars  and  rumors  of  wars.1 
The  same  hour  that  Massachusetts  soldiers  were 
engaged  in  battle  at  Lexington,  April  nineteenth, 
David  Zeisberger  and  his  assistants  were  in  the 
mission-house  at  Schonbrunn,  Ohio,  examining 
candidates  for  church-membership.  The  Breth- 
ren held  on,  faithful  in  their  work  of  love,  their 
devotion  to  the  best  interests  of  these  men 
of  the  woods ;  but  the  very  fidelity  and  quiet 

Life  of  Zeisberger,  222. 


LECT.  VIII.] 


WARS.  331 


Christian  trust  of  the  Moravians  were  misinter- 
preted, and  they  were  again  accused,  as  they  had 
been  a  dozen  years  before  in  Eastern  New  York, 
and  as  David  Brainerd  was  at  Crossweeksung, 
of  being  in  secret  league  with  the  French.1  They 
shared  the  frequent  penalty  of  peacemakers,  the 
distrust  of  both  sides,  in  nearly  every  contest. 
They  espoused  the  cause  of  neither ;  they  were 
non-combatants;  their  principles  and  feelings 
forbade  alliance  with  any  party  as  a  war  party. 
In  the  heat  of  an  armed  strife,  suspicion  was 
easily  inflamed  into  hatred ;  the  most  unfounded 
rumors  took  wing;  artful  letters  to  their  dis- 
credit were  forged.  The  frontier  position  of  the 
Christian  Indians,  often  on  the  line  between 
hostile  forces,  made  them  all  the  more  naturally 
objects  of  distrust,  and  at  length  of  wanton  ill- 
treatment.  In  the  Revolutionary  War,  British 
intrigue  stirred  up  savage  allies  to  massacre 
white  colonists,  and  to  root  out  the  doubtful 
Delawares.  Again,  in  the  last  war  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain,  upon  an  un- 
proven  rumor,  the  troops  of  General  Harrison, 
victorious  in  the  battle  of  the  Thames  (1813), 
plundered  and  burned  the  village  of  Christian 

1  Bishop  Spangenberg  wrote  to  Count  Zinzendorf  in  Septem- 
ber, 1766 :  Das  Land  is  voll  Furcht  und  Schrecken.  In  der  Ge- 
neinde  ists  Licht.  Wir  leben  dabey  aiiserlich  in  guter  Ruhe,  und 
werden  des  Ileilandes  Nah-und  Daseyn  unveranderlich  inne.  Risler, 
Leben  Spangenberg,  313. 


332  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.VIII. 

Indians  at  Fairfield,  Canada;  mission-house  and 
chapel  vanished  in  the  flames,  and  converts  fled 
to  the  woods. 

Neutrals  in  the  neighborhood  of  belligerents 
are  always  exposed  to  injuries;  but  it  was  not 
alone  to  such  evils  as  are  inevitably  incident 
to  war  that  the  mission  and  Christian  Indians 
were  subjected.  It  was  by  no  means  strange 
that,  with  the  experience  of  border  life  —  fre- 
quent murders  and  occasional  war  —  there  should 
grow  up  a  feeling  of  dread  and  of  vindictiveness. 
When  the  mere  name  of  Indian  would  cause  the 
wives  of  white  settlers  to  turn  pale,  and  children 
to  cling  to  their  mothers'  necks,  it  could  hardly 
fail  that  many  a  husband  and  father  should  come 
to  think  that  extermination  of  the  red  men  was 
a  required  condition  of  safety.  Reason  ceased 
to  rule,  humane  feelings  withered,  terror  de- 
moralized, character  degenerated,  till  the  Indians, 
without  distinction,  were  rather  commonly  pro- 
nounced outlaws,  and  to  shoot  them  was  deemed 
a  public  service.  Some  men  of  religious  habits 
persuaded  themselves  that  the  aborigines  were 
only  Canaanites  and  doomed  to  be  cut  off;  men 
destitute  of  religious  convictions  deemed  it  an 
impertinence  to  be  asked  to  justify  their  fanatical 
fear  and  fanatical  hatred.  Hence  the  unoffend- 
ing became  victims  of  massacre.  Hostile  Indians 
led  the  way  in  this  horrid  work.  The  twenty- 
fourth  of  November,  1755,  is  a  dark  day  in 


LBCT.  viii.i  MASSACRES.  333 

the  calendar  of  colonial  and  Moravian  history. 
The  defeat  of  General  Braddock,  four  months 
previously,  had  become  known  far  and  wide  to 
the  savage  tribes  in  league  with  the  French,  who 
now  rushed  into  Pennsylvania,  carrying  fire  and 
slaughter  to  the  frontier  settlements.  A  mile 
from  Gnadenhiitten,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Mahony  Creek,  was  a  settlement  of  Christian 
Indians  with  their  white  teachers.  The  hour  for 
their  evening  meal  has  come.  The  tramp  of  men 
is  heard,  and  one  of  the  mission  family  rises  from 
the  table,  opens  the  door  to  see  who  were  there, 
when  instantly  a  terrible  war-whoop  and  dis- 
charge of  rifles  are  heard,  and  Martin  Nitsch- 
mann  falls  dead.  The  firing  continues,  and  his 
wife  soon  falls.  Four  others  are  at  once  fatally 
pierced.  A  few,  escaping  by  the  trap-door  into 
a  loft,  have  some  minutes'  respite;  but  the 
house  is  soon  in  flames.  Mrs.  Sensemann,  ex- 
claiming, "Dear  Saviour!  Just  as  I  expected!" 
is  stifled.  Gottlieb  Anders,  his  wife  and  infant 
perish  also.  Two  only  escape  the  flames  and 
bullets  by  leaping  from  a  window  at  a  favorable 
moment.  Fabricius,  who  attempted  the  same, 
is  soon  tomahawked  and  scalped.  Ten  persons 
perished  ;  Susanna  Nitschmann  would  fain  have 
shared  the  same  fate  rather  than  captivity  among 
brutish  Indians  at  Tioga.  The  most  prejudiced 
white  detractors  could  not  but  admit  that  the 
massacre  and  conflagration  of  that  night  vindi- 


334  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VIII. 

cated  Moravians  from   the   aspersion  of  a  secret 
alliance  with  the  enemy. 

Alas  that,  for  such  diabolical  scenes,  aboriginal 
savages  are  not  alone  responsible !  An  Indian, 
with  his  little  child,  wife,  and  another  woman, 
who  had  belonged  to  the  mission  village  of 
Wechquetank,  on  their  journey  were  sleeping  in 
a  barn,  and  depending  upon  the  protection  of 
one  Captain  Wetterhold  and  his  company,  quar- 
tered at  the  same  place  (1763)  ;  but  their  pro- 
tectors fell  upon  them,  and  murdered  them  all, 
though  the  mother  and  child  kneeled  at  their 
feet  crying  for  mercy.1  An  armed  mob  advanced 
upon  Philadelphia  with  the  avowed  purpose  of 
not  sparing  one  in  the  company  of  Christian 
Indians  who  were  lodged  there  in  the  neighbor- 


1  The  same  year,  there  occurred  another  massacre  of  equal 
wantonness  and  greater  magnitude.  On  the  Conestoga  Manor, 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  were  a  hand- 
ful of  Indians,  twenty  in  number,  half-civilized,  poor,  and  friend- 
ly to  the  English,  as  their  fathers  had  been.  But  the  Scotch- 
Irish  of  Paxton  and  vicinity  conceived  that  they  had  a  mission 
to  cut  off  this  feeble  clan.  A  band  of  fifty  men  fell  upon  the 
hamlet,  burned  every  house,  and  killed  every  Indian  who  could 
be  found.  Fourteen  out  of  the  score,  happening  to  be  absent 
at  the  hour  of  this  dastardly  attack,  were,  for  safe  keeping, 
lodged  in  Lancaster  jail.  Hearing  of  this,  the  same  party,  a 
fortnight  later,  galloped  into  town,  burst  open  the  prison  door, 
and  slaughtered  the  entire  party,  women  and  children  included. 
That  little  Conestoga  settlement  was  not,  it  is  true,  a  mission- 
ary station;  but  the  occurrence  shows  the  frenzied  animosity 
of  the  region  and  the  period. 


LBCT.  viii.]  MASSACKES.  335 

hood  for  safe  keeping.  Scarcely  had  five  years 
gone  by  when  there  occurred  (1768)  a  brutal 
murder  of  ten  inoffensive  Indians  in  Cumberland 
County,  three  of  them  women  and  three  children. 
But  it  was  reserved  for  the  Valley  of  the  Tusca- 
rawas,  in  Ohio,  to  witness  the  consummate  exhi- 
bition of  cool  and  cowardly  diabolism  on  the 
part  of  white  men.  This  final  massacre  took 
place  just  at  the  close  of  our  War  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, months  after  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis  at 
Yorktown.  The  Moravian  Indians  in  Tuscara- 
was  County,  by  their  frontier  position,  incurred 
naturally  the  suspicion  of  hostile  powers  on  either 
side.  They,  however,  maintained  strict  neutral- 
ity, their  secret  friendship  being  with  the  Ameri- 
can side ;  nor  is  there  any  sufficient  evidence  that 
reasonable  complaint  could  be  brought  against 
a  single  member  of  the  community.  When  white 
troops  of  either  party  passed  through  their  vil- 
lages, common  hospitality  was  not  only  fight,  but 
was  a  necessity  for  their  own  preservation.  Early 
in  March,  1782,  a  band  of  mounted  volunteer 
militia,  estimated  from  ninety  to  a  hundred  and 
fifty  in  number,  from  the  neighborhood  of  Pitts- 
burg,  pushed  rapidly  to  the  peaceful  settlements. 
The  peaceable  and  unsuspicious  natives  were  en- 
gaged in  the  usual  industries  of  the  season.  The 
first  one  whom  the  murderers  met,  at  a  little 
distance  from  Gnadenhiitten,  Joseph  Schebosh, 
the  son  of  a  white  man,  fell  under  their  toma- 


336  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.  vm. 

hawks  —  yes,  the  tomahawks  of  Pennsylvanians 
—  and  they  took  his  scalp  as  a  trophy.  The 
entire  village  was  secured.  The  invaders  pro- 
fessed friendship ;  said  they  had  come  to  res- 
cue the  Christian  Indians  from  their  exposed 
situation ;  would  conduct  them  to  a  place  of 
safety,  where  they  should  be  well  provided  for ; 
and  gave  wampum  in  proof  of  kind  intentions. 
The  party  were  accordingly  welcomed,  hospitably 
entertained,  friendly  interchanges  taking  place 
through  an  interpreter.  Similar  assurances  were 
made  by  a  detachment  of  the  militia,  at  the  settle- 
ment of  Salem.  The  Indians,  thrown  completely 
off  their  guard  —  and  the  more  completely  be- 
cause these  strangers  professed  a  pious  interest 
in  their  welfare  —  placed  themselves  entirely  in 
the  hands  of  the  soldiers,  and  surrendered  their 
weapons.  Suddenly  the  confiding  creatures  were 
all  seized,  crowded  into  two  houses,  arid  strictly 
guarded.  The  fate  of  these  unresisting  captives 
was  submitted  for  decision  to  the  militia,  drawn 
up  in  line,  their  commander  putting  it  thus: 
"Shall  the  Moravian  Indians  be  taken  prisoners 
to  Pittsburg,  or  put  to  death  ?  All  those  in  favor 
of  sparing  their  lives,  advance  one  step  and  form 
a  second  rank."  Only  sixteen  men  stepped  out 
of  the  line,  a  large  majority  thus  deciding  in 
favor  of  death !  At  the  same  time,  it  was  decided 
to  tomahawk  and  scalp  the  entire  party,  that 
proofs  might  be  carried  back.  No  protests  of 


LKCT.  TIII.]  MASSACRES.  337 

innocence,  no  appeals  to  well  known  friendly  ser- 
vices, availed  the  helpless  prisoners.  They  were 
allowed  till  the  next  day  to  prepare  for  execution. 
Yielding  submissively,  they  began  to  pray,  to 
exhort  and  comfort  one  another,  and  at  length 
to  sing.  When  morning  came,  and  their  eager 
enemies  demanded  if  they  would  soon  be  ready, 
"  We  are  ready  now,"  was  their  answer ;  "  we 
have  committed  our  souls  to  God,  who  has  given 
us  the  assurance  that  he  will  receive  them." 
Two  and  two  they  were  tied  together  with  a 
rope,  dragged  to  the  place  of  execution,  slaugh- 
tered and  scalped.  Fourteen  were  felled  to  the 
floor  by  one  man  with  a  cooper's  mallet,  which 
he  then  passed  to  an  associate  ruffian,  saying: 
"  My  arm  fails  me  !  Go  on  in  the  same  way  !  I 
think  I  have  done  pretty  well ! "  Five  of  the 
slain  were  respectable  assistants,  two  of  whom 
had  been  members  of  David  Brainerd's  congre- 
gation, in  New  Jersey,  before  his  decease.  The 
men  and  boys  having  been  thus  despatched, 
women  and  children  were  next  taken  in  the 
same  manner  to  another  house.  To  call  it  a 
savage  proceeding  would  reflect  upon  the  red 
men  in  their  uncivilized  state.  One  of  the  first 
among  the  female  victims  was  Judith,  an  aged 
widow.  Another  was  Christiana,  who  had  lived 
with  the  Moravians  at  Bethlehem  in  her  youth, 
who  spoke  English  and  German,  and  who  pleaded 
with  the  commander  in  vain.  The  tomahawk 

22 


338  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.VIII. 

and  war-club,  the  spear  and  scalping-knife,  did 
their  work  on  ninety-six  Indians,  of  whom  twenty- 
seven  were  women  and  thirty-four  children  — 
twelve  of  the  latter  being  infants.  Two  lads 
only  escaped,  one  of  them  being  stunned  and 
scalped ;  the  other  secreting  himself  unobserved 
in  the  cellar  of  the  house  where  the  women 
suffered,  and  where  the  blood  streamed  through 
the  floor  upon  him.  The  militia,  having  accom- 
plished this  butchery,  gathered  up  their  plunder, 
set  fire  to  what  they  appropriately  called  the 
"  slaughter-houses,"  as  well  as  to  both  villages,  and 
marched  away,  with  the  purpose  of  repeating  the 
same  outrage  elsewhere. 

We  have  now  followed  the  mission  through 
thirty  years  or  more  of  forced  migrations,  of 
wrongs  and  privations  incident  to  frontier  life; 
through  successive  wars  and  successive  massacres. 
Circumstances  more  unfavorable  could  hardly  be 
conceived.  All  the  conditions  requisite  for  defeat 
seemed  to  conspire  along  its  path.  It  was  a  pil- 
grim mission,  a  mission  of  vicissitudes,  a  maligned 
and  persecuted  mission,  with  no  influential  board 
to  whom  appeal  could  be  made,  and  with  no  gov- 
ernmental arm  to  interpose  a  shield.  Success  is 
never  the  test  of  fidelity.  Nothing  about  this 
mission  is  more  remarkable  than  that,  under  such 
embarrassments,  so  much  of  success  was  achieved. 
In  the  course  of  forty-seven  years  (1740-1787) 
nineteen  different  stations  were  founded,  though 


LECT.VIII.]  LATER  LABORS.  339 

at  no  one  time  were  so  many  occupied.  David 
Zeisberger  baptized  men  who  had  once  lifted  the 
tomahawk  to  slay  himl  More  than  one  fierce 
warrior,  like  Michael,  who  could  maintain  an  en- 
gagement for  six  hours,  keeping  his  post  undaunt- 
edly at  a  tree  which  had  over  a  score  of  musket- 
balls  lodged  in  it,  became  a  Christian,  lived  a  con- 
sistent life,  and  his  end  was  peace.  In  spite  of 
the  emblems  scarified  on  his  face  —  a  snake  on 
one  cheek,  crossed  lances  on  the  other,  on  the 
lower  jaw  a  wild-boar's  head,  and  various  symbols 
of  savage  life  —  his  countenance  assumed  an  ex- 
pression of  serene  benignity.  In  the  whole  range 
of  martyrology  are  there  many  chapters  more  im- 
pressive than  that  of  the  massacre  at  Gnadenhut- 
ten  ?  And  does  the  history  of  Christian  missions 
present  us  an  instance  of  more  intrepid  persistence 
in  seeking  the  welfare  of  a  wronged  community 
amidst  perils  and  calamities,  reviled  by  men  call- 
ing themselves  Christians,  yet  ignorant  of  the 
principles,  and  incapable  of  appreciating  the  mo- 
tives, of  Moravian  missionaries? 

The  frightful  massacre  at  Gnadenhiitten  was 
the  heaviest  blow  the  work  could  receive.  Ex- 
tinction seemed  to  be  threatened ;  decline  was  in- 
evitable. What  people  in  modern  times  could 
more  appropriately  take  up  the  lamentation  of 
Israel  —  "They  hunt  our  steps  that  we  cannot  go 
in  our  streets  ;  our  end  is  near ;  our  days  are  ful- 
filled ;  for  our  end  is  come.  Our  persecutors  are 


340  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.VUI. 

swifter  than  the  eagles  of  the  heaven ;  they  pur- 
sued us  upon  the  mountains,  they  laid  wait  for  us 
in  the  wilderness."  Yet  the  Brethren  clung  to 
the  feeble  remnant  of  converts  who  escaped  the 
scalping-knife  of  savage  red  men  and  merciless 
white  men.  After  twelve  years,  peculiarly  unset- 
tled years  of  wandering,  of  want  and  of  great 
trial,  the  little  band  of  Christian  Delawares  set- 
tled at  Fairfield,  Canada  West  (1792),  where  the 
English  Government  secured  to  them  a  strip  of 
land  on  both  sides  the  Thames  River,  some  dis- 
tance above  its  embouchure  into  Lake  St.  Clair.1 
As  before  mentioned,  the  place  was  destroyed  by 
American  troops  in  1813;  but,  two  years  later, 
New  Fairfield 2  was  built  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  river,  and  mission  work  resumed.  After  a 
score  of  years  (1837),  a  roving  impulse  seized  a  part 
of  this  settlement,  and  two  thirds  of  the  whole 
migrated  to  Westfield,  in  Kansas,  two  missionaries 
accompanying  the  party.  But  the  usual  condition 
of  such  wandering  Indians  has  come  upon  them, 
and  they  are  dwindling  toward  extinction. 

From  1798  to  1821,  an  effort  was  made  to  rees- 
tablish Christian  work,  on  a  tract  of  land  granted 
by  the  United  States  Government,  in  the  Valley  of 

1  Down  to  1809,  the  whole  number  of  natives  baptized  in  the 
mission   was  between    thirteen  and    fourteen    hundred    souls. 
Heckewelder's  Narrative,  418. 

2  The   settlement,  four  miles  from  Bothwell,  is  known  as 
Moravian  Town. 


LATER   LABORS.  341 

the  Muskingum.  This  enterprise,  however,  in 
the  neighborhood  of  their  earlier  Ohio  home,  did 
not  prove  a  permanent  success;  nor  did  less  pro- 
tracted attempts  at  Pettquattiug,  and  on  the  San- 
dusky;  nor  yet  on  the  White  River,  a  branch  of 
the  Wabash,  in  Illinois,  where  a  native  helper, 
Joshua,  was  murdered  (1806).  The  missionaries 
were  compelled  to  leave.  Labor  has  been  carried 
on  in  the  Cherokee  country  also.  Sixteen  years 
before  the  American  Board  commenced  their  work 
among  that  people,  United  Brethren  had  estab- 
lished a  station  at  Springplace,  Georgia1  (1801). 
In  1817,  the}'  gave  a  welcome  to  our  missionaries, 
and  in  process  of  time,  along  with  them  and  the 
remainder  of  that  tribe,  were  forcibly  ejected  from 
the  State,  and  conveyed  beyond  the  Mississippi 
(1838).  Two  stations,  New  Springplace  and 
Wood  Mount,  are  still  maintained  by  Moravians 
in  the  Cherokee  Reservation  of  the  Indian  Ter- 
ritory. 


1  During  the  Indian  wars,  Cherokee  chiefs,  who  were  hospit- 
ably received  by  Moravians  in  North  Carolina,  expressed  a  de- 
sire to  have  teachers  sent  to  their  people,  and  the  evangelizing 
of  that  tribe  was  never  wholly  lost  sight  of  by  the  Brethren.  In 
1801,  A.  Steiner  and  G.  Byhan  began  labors  at  Springplace. 
The  names  of  Gambold  and  Smith  also  appear  in  the  history 
of  the  two  flourishing  stations,  Springplace  and  Ochgalogy,  in 
Northern  Georgia. 


LECTURE  IX. 


MISSIOX  TO  SOUTH  AFRICA 


MISSION   TO   SOUTH  AFRICA. 


OF  the  three  older  continents,  Africa  has  held 
the  same  place  that  Ham  held  among  the  sons  of 
Noah  —  least  known  and  least  esteemed.  Among 
the  six  continents  of  modern  geography,  it  has 
the  smallest  supply  of  outlying  islands,  has  no 
peninsulas,  has  the  most  monotonous  coast-line, 
is  nowhere  penetrated  by  gulfs  and  bays.  Bal- 
anced upon  the  equator,  a  nearly  equal  mass  on 
the  one  side  and  on  the  other,  Africa  is  the  most 
torrid  of  the  continents,  there  being  vast  tracts 
where  the  soil  is  like  a  furnace-bed,  and  the  wind 
like  a  furnace-breath.  On  no  other  coast-line 
in  the  world  can  there  be  found  a  stretch  of  one 
thousand  and  one  hundred  miles,  as  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Senegal  northward,  without  a  single 
stream,  large  or  small.  Yet  Africa  has  moun- 
tains higher  than  Mont  Blanc,  whose  snow-cov- 
ered peaks  defy  the  full  force  of  vertical  rays 
poured  upon  them  the  year  round.  Among  the 
great  divisions  of  the  globe,  this,  which  is  five 
thousand  miles  in  length,  and  as  many  miles  in 
its  greatest  breadth,  is  the  least  subject  to  hur- 
ricanes, and  suffers  least  from  subterranean  dis- 
turbance. 

(345) 


346  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  ILECT.  ix. 

Africa  is  the  continent  of  contradictions  and 
historical  enigmas  —  utter  absence  of  rain  alter- 
nating with  rains  the  year  round;  sterility  most 
intense  bordered  by  vegetation  the  most  crowded 
and  gigantic ;  here  not  sustenance  enough  for 
a  blade  of  grass ;  there  vines  equal  to  the  largest 
hawsers,  and  the  baobab-tree,  sometimes  a  hun- 
dred feet  in  circumference.1  It  is  the  peculiar 
garden  of  the  papyrus  and  of  the  date-tree  — 
one  among  its  thousand  species  of  palms  —  of 
ferns  and  of  heaths,  of  which,  in  South  Africa 
alone,  five  hundred  species  have  already  been 
registered.  It  is  the  favorite  abode  of  the  chim- 
panzee and  gorilla,  of  the  jackal  and  the  ichneu- 
mon, of  the  ostrich,  the  antelope  and  giraffe,  the 
zebra,  the  hippopotamus,  the  rhinoceros,  elephant 
and  lion.  But  a  little  way  from  Europe,  a  penin- 
sula of  Asia,  it  has,  in  the  main,  continued  iso- 
lated, and  of  small  commercial  or  political  im- 
portance. Great  rivers,  the  usual  highways  to 
interior  regions,  are  here  blocked  by  bars  or 
cataracts  and  rapids.  Across  the  broad  northern 
plateau  stretches  a  sea  of  sand,  more  effectually 
dissociating  the  rest  of  the  continent  from  early 
seats  of  civilization  than  would  an  ocean  of  twice 
the  same  width.  Not  till  the  Arab  introduced 

1  "The  writer  has  the  measurement  of  one,  of  which  the 
trunk  alone  was  upwards  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  cir- 
cumference, giving  an  average  diameter  of  fifty  feet,  though 
not  perfectly  round."  Silver's  Handbook  to  South  Africa,  161. 


LBOT.IX.]  DILATORY   DEVELOPMENT.  347 

his  "ship  of  the  desert"  could  the  Sahara  be 
traversed  at  all.  Claudius  Ptolemy,  the  most 
distinguished  of  ancient  astronomers  and  geog- 
raphers, himself  born  at  Alexandria,  believed  that 
the  southern  portion  of  Asia  swept  round  into 
connection  with  his  native  Africa.  Even  till 
within  the  last  four  hundred  years,  the  shape 
of  the  continent  was  not  known  to  Europeans. 
The  most  ancient  historical  river  of  our  globe, 
which  had  been  famous  for  three  thousand  years 
already  when  America  was  discovered,  did  not 
yield  up  the  secret  of  its  source  till  men  yet 
living  boldly  undertook  the  exploration.  The 
earliest  nation  known  to  history  had  its  home  on 
this  continent,  as  also  have  nations  the  most 
recently  made  known  to  civilized  man. 

The  opening  of  Central  Africa  is  the  great 
geographical  revelation  of  our  day.  Immemo- 
rially  it  had  been  pronounced  a  vast  sandy  plain, 
destitute  of  inhabitants,  of  vegetation  and  water. 
We  now  find  that  it  is  fertile  and  populous  to 
a  high  degree  ;  that  its  lake-system  rivals  that 
of  North  America;  while  it  sends  into  the  At- 
lantic, by  one  channel  six  miles  wide,  a  volume 
of  fresh  water  three  times  as  great  as  the  Missis- 
sippi, making  itself  felt  scores  of  miles  at  sea 
—  a  river  first  explored  by  a  countryman  of  ours, 
and  so  late  as  1876-1877.  The  last  seventy  years 
have  disclosed  more  in  regard  to  this  great  con- 
tinent than  the  seventeen  hundred  years  that 
went  before. 


348  MOEAVIAK  MISSIONS.  CLECT.  ix. 

If  the  eye  finds  little  in  the  contour  of  Africa 
that  is  pleasing ;  if  it  sees  only  a  huge  trunk 
devoid  of  limbs,  an  undeveloped  mass,  insular 
and  compact  —  it  beholds  a  division  of  the  globe 
not  less  behindhand  socially  and  in  its  political 
institutions.  We  here  find  the  broadest  domain 
of  savagery ;  and  we  are  appalled  by  the  contem- 
plation particularly  of  one  form  of  human  wrong 
existing  on  a  scale  and  with  accompaniments 
which  are  without  parallel.  This  is  the  conti- 
nent of  slavery,  indigenous,  universal,  remorseless. 
One  half  of  the  native  population,  outside  of 
British  influence,  would  seem  to  be  in  actual 
or  imminent  bondage.  Here  is  a  vast  empire  of 
brute  force.  Inter-tropical  Africa  is  more  espe- 
cially the  domain  of  violence  aiming  at  enslave- 
ment—  a  condition  not,  indeed,  peculiar  to  this 
continent,  though  peculiar  in  its  character  and 
history.  The  servitude  to  which  Mohammedans 
in  the  Barbary  States  formerly  subjected  Chris- 
tians who  came  within  their  grasp  was  charac- 
terized by  full  horror  enough ;  but  there  existed 
the  truculent  apology  of  a  different  race  and 
religion.  The  Koran  had  made  it  a  virtue.  But 
Africa  is  enslaved  by  Africa  and  for  Africa. 
For  debt,  for  crimes,  and  by  sorcery,  neighbor 
subjects  neighbor.  Guerilla  war  is  universal  — 
predatory  raids,  not  to  avenge  injuries,  not  for 
the  enlargement  of  territory,  not  to  secure  gar- 
nered grain  or  hoarded  gold,  but  to  make  booty 


MOT.  ix.]  SLAVE  TRADE.  349 

of  fellow-men.  The  chief  acquaintance  which 
Central  Africa  for  three  centuries  had  with  those 
calling  themselves  Christians,  was  in  barter  for 
human  flesh  and  blood.  A  harvest  of  human 
hands  was  reaped  for  the  rest  of  the  world.  Por- 
tuguese led  the  way ;  Spaniards  followed ;  the 
French  were  not  slow  to  imitate ;  and,  strangest 
of  all,  England  outdid  all  her  neighbors.  The 
greater  part  of  the  wealth  of  Bristol  and  Liver- 
pool, prior  to  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  was 
due  to  that  traffic.  It  is  estimated  that,  in  the 
course  of  three  centuries,  over  forty  millions  of 
human  beings  were  forced  from  the  shores  of  this 
doomed  continent  into  foreign  servitude;  while 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  lives  were  sacrificed 
in  securing  that  atrocious  prize.  To  such  foreign 
trade  chiefly  is  it  due  that  good  neighborhood  has 
been  made  impossible ;  that  all  social  ties  are 
sundered;  that  inter-tribal  war  has  become  a 
chronic  malady  —  a  scourge  more  fatal  than  the 
simoom.  The  outside  demand  has  continued  re- 
lentless. Alliances  are  formed  with  native  chiefs, 
who  make  no  conscience  of  swooping  up  one  of 
their  own  hamlets  when  a  raid  upon  some  border 
tribe  has  proved  a  failure.  Witness  a  foray.  An 
armed  band  comes  suddenly  upon  a  settlement. 
The  young  and  healthy  are  seized ;  the  aged  and 
sick  are  left  to  starve ;  houses  are  fired ;  a  chain- 
gang  is  formed ;  iron  neck-rings  or  rough  wooden 
yokes  are  employed,  and  a  rapid  inarch  toward 


350  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.IX. 

the  rendezvous  begun.  The  bodies  of  captives 
are  torn  with  thorns  in  the  jungle,  and  lacerated 
with  the  driver's  whip.  The  more  feeble,  no 
longer  able  to  bear  up  under  loss  of  blood  or  want 
of  food,  fall,  and  their  heads  are  severed  as  the 
easiest  way  to  disengage  an  encumbrance  from 
the  coffle,  which  must  be  hurried  on.  Homo 
homini  Dcemon.  Such  has  been  the  work  of  fire 
and  sword,  whip  and  chain,  for  hundreds  of  years, 
spreading  desolation,  and  leaving  misery  behind ; 
while  the  salable  plunder  has  been  packed  into 
stifling  dens  between  decks,  and,  if  not  thrown 
overboard,  is,  at  the  end  of  the  voyage,  exchanged 
for  civilized  doubloons.  It  is  a  species  of  com- 
merce unequaled  in  barbarity — the  most  mon- 
strous form  of  wickedness  known  in  the  annals  of 
depravity.  To  Africa  belongs  a  sad  preeminence 
of  wrongs  —  wrongs  more  gigantic,  more  intense, 
more  prolonged,  than  in  any  other  quarter  of  the 
globe. 

Nor  is  it  yet  a  century  since  united  and  effec- 
tive efforts  were  put  forth  (1787)  for  suppressing 
the  exterior  slave-trade,  and  so  far  abating  the  in- 
terior trade.  Portugal,  the  first  to  begin,  was  the 
last  to  abandon,  the  horrid  traffic.  England,  deep 
in  guilt,  was  earliest  in  repentance  and  in  fruits 
meet  for  repentance.  She  is  the  banner  nation 
in  this  department  of  philanthropy,  declaring  the 
trade  to  be  felony,  then  piracy.  She  has  made 
most  noble  endeavors  to  remove  such  a  blot  on 


MSCT.IX.]  CHBISTIANITY  IN  AFKICA.  851 

modern  civilization  as  this  diabolical  commerce. 
Under  her  leadership,  other  maritime  nations  have 
been  drawn  into  cooperative  schemes  for  extermi- 
nating the  hydra.  Yet,  notwithstanding  costly 
blockades,  exportation  from  the  western  coast  has 
not  wholly  ceased,  it  is  said ;  along  the  eastern 
coast,  it  is  still  active.  Barth  states  (1849-1855) 
that  a  little  to  the  north  of  the  equator,  and  east 
of  Guinea,  individual  natives  often  own  as  many 
as  a  thousand  slaves  ;  and  that  in  one  instance 
slave-hunters  slaughtered  one  hundred  and  sev- 
enty full-grown  men  before  his  eyes.  Elephants 
yield  costly  ivory ;  vegetable  wealth  abounds ; 
valuable  minerals  are  not  wanting;  still  human 
beings  have  been  the  staple  of  commerce.  Five 
pounds  of  powder  will  buy  a  man ;  a  single  gun 
will  buy  two  men.  As  an  illicit  trade,  its  greater 
risks  have  only  occasioned  increased  cruelties. 

Is  there  any  sanitary  agent  equal  to  the  de- 
mands of  the  case  —  anything  that  can  heal  what 
Livingstone  calls  "  this  open  sore  "  of  centuries, 
which  has  made  equatorial  Africa  one  vast  mori- 
bund mass?  Christianity  removed  slavery  from 
Western  Europe  six  centuries  ago ;  it  has  since 
banished  serfdom  alike  from  Eastern  and  Western 
Europe.  There  is  no  dark  problem  of  individual 
or  continental  evil  to  which  it  is  not  adequate. 
Bring  it  to  bear;  enlist  Heaven,  and  the  Dark 
Continent  shall  be  renovated.  The  light-bring- 
ing, life-giving  agency  is  entering  the  field ;  and 


352  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LBCT.IX. 

around  the  rim  of  Africa  may  be  seen,  at  many 
points,  the  feet  of  them  that  "  bring  good  tidings 
of  good."  They  are  also  beginning  their  march 
inland.  The  demon  of  slavery,  of  war,  of  sorcery, 
of  wanton  and  superstitious  butchery,  will  yet  be 
driven  into  outer  darkness.  Africa  once  shielded 
the  infant  Jesus ;  our  ascended  Saviour  has  not 
forgotten  that  continent.  The  man  who  relieved 
the  fainting  Jesus  of  his  cross  was  an  African ; 
from  Cyrene  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  every 
tribe  shall  erelong  glory  in  that  cross. 

According  to  both  German  and  English  geogra- 
phers, Africa  has  two  hundred  millions  of  inhabi- 
tants. The  first  modern  Protestant  movement 
in  their  behalf  was  made  by  Moravians,  and  at 
the  southern  extremity.  We  at  once  recur  by 
contrast  to  the  north  of  the  continent,  and  to 
the  early  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  when 
churches  were  planted  along  the  coast  of  the 
Mediterranean,  and  in  Egypt  and  Abyssinia; 
when,  at  one  of  the  ecclesiastical  councils,  three 
hundred  and  seventy-seven  ministers  were  in  con- 
sultation on  religious  affairs;  and  when  Africa 
could  boast  of  names  which,  from  those  times 
to  the  present,  have  been  famous  in  church  his- 
tory—  a  Clemens  and  Cyprian,  an  Origen  and 
Tertullian,  an  Athanasius  and  Augustine.  But 
beacon-lights  thus  kindled  along  the  upper  border 
of  the  Dark  Continent  were  not  fed  and  multi- 
plied ;  the  evangelical  spirit  waned ;  evangelistic 


LECT.IX.]  INITIAL  MOVEMENT.  353 

movements  ceased ;  the  churches  failed  to  give 
the  gospel  to  interior  tribes,  and  their  candle- 
stick was  removed  out  of  its  place.  Promulga- 
tion or  death  is  everywhere  the  alternative.  To 
the  shame  of  early  churches,  Africa  remained 
heathen  ;  to  the  shame  of  modern  churches,  Mo- 
hammedanism has  remained  undisturbed  in  its 
older  usurpations,  and  has  been  allowed  to  keep 
on  till  the  present  hour,  sweeping  unhindered 
over  one  half  of  this  great  division  of  our  globe. 
It  startles  us  to  learn  that  the  oldest  and  largest 
theological  school  in  existence,  a  Mohammedan 
institution,  is  on  this  same  benighted  continent, 
in  its  most  populous  city,  and  within  sight  of 
monuments  which,  for  three  thousand  years,  have 
been  the  wonder  of  the  world.  The  Azar  at 
Cairo  has  three  hundred  professors  and  ten  thou- 
sand students,  representing  all  nationalities  where 
Islam  prevails.  The  institution  has  no  endow- 
ments or  scholarships ;  the  professors  have  no 
salaries  ;  most  of  the  students  are  poor ;  yet  here 
for  nearly  a  thousand  years  Mohammedan  fanati- 
cism has  maintained  this  propaganda. 

Christendom,  thank  God!  is  beginning  to  awake. 
There  are  now  not  less  than  thirty  societies  en- 
gaged in  the  work  of  sending  the  gospel  thither. 
Herrnhut  —  all  honor  to  the  Unitas  Fratrum  !  — 
took  the  lead.  Although  the  Dutch  had  had  a 
foothold  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  more  than 
three  fourths  of  a  century,  they  failed  to  take 

23 


354  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LBCT.IX. 

the  first  step  toward  giving  the  gospel  to  Hot- 
tentot or  Kafir.  When  Ziegenbalg  and  Pliit- 
schau,  pioneers  of  the  Danish  Tranquebar  Mission, 
touched  at  the  Cape  on  their  way  to  India,  in 
1706,  they  were  surprised  to  find  that  Dutch 
masters  did  not  allow  slaves  to  be  baptized ;  but 
all  that  those  missionaries  could  do  was  to  pray 
God  to  have  mercy  on  these  neglected  heathen.1 
The  account  of  their  visit  to  Cape  Town,  after- 
wards published,  was  not  without  influence  in 
turning  the  attention  of  European  Christians  to 
the  needs  of  South  Africa.  Two  pious  gentle- 
men, Messrs.  Van  Alphen  and  De  Bruyn,  at 
Amsterdam,  becoming  at  length  affected  by  such 
accounts  of  the  Hottentots,  to  whom  should  they 
turn,  with  any  hope  of  a  favorable  response,  but 
to  that  band  of  pioneers  who  had  already  estab- 
lished missions  in  the  West  Indies  and  Green- 
land? The  providence  and  grace  of  God  had 
been  training  a  man,  humble  in  rank,  unlearned, 
but  full  of  faith  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  full  of  zeal 
and  fortitude,  who  stood  ready  for  the  service. 
It  was  George  Schmidt.  Though  he  was  then 
only  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  one  part  of  his 
education  had  been  a  six  years'  imprisonment,  for 
the  truth's  sake,  in  Bohemia,  and  to  the  day  of 
death  he  bore  the  marks  of  galling  chains.  The 
letter  from  Amsterdam  reached  Herrrihut  on  the 

1  Germann  :    "  Zicgcnbulg  u.  Pliitschau,"  s.  G2. 


LUOT.IX.]  INITIAL   MOVEMENT.  355 

sixth  of  February;  seven  days  later,  Schmidt 
was  on  his  way  to  Holland.  That  was  1736,  the 
year  when  the  first  three  converts  were  baptized 
by  Moravian  missionaries  on  St.  Thomas,  and 
when  Mohegan  Indians,  under  the  lead  of  Ser- 
geant, began  to  build  the  town  of  Stockbridge, 
Massachusetts.  Clergymen,  appointed  by  the 
Dutch  East  India  Company  to  examine  Schmidt 
at  Amsterdam,  endeavored  to  dissuade  him  from 
his  undertaking.  "  The  language  of  the  Hotten- 
tots," said  they,  "is  extremely  difficult.  They 
have  nothing  but  wild  roots  to  feed  upon.  What 
do  you  think  of  that?  "  "  With  God,"  he  replied, 
"  all  things  are  possible ;  and,  as  I  have  assurance 
that  it  is  the  will  of  God  I  should  preach  the 
gospel  to  the  Hottentots,  so  I  hope  firmly  in  him 
that  he  will  carry  me  through  the  greatest  diffi- 
culties." The  earnest  Moravian  was  obliged  to 
remain  at  Amsterdam  a  whole  year,  earning  his 
bread  as  a  day-laborer,  till  a  passage  to  the  Cape 
could  be  secured.  But  the  man  who  had  gradu- 
ated, after  a  six  years'  course  of  patient  waiting, 
from  the  Spielberg,  where  Silvio  Pellico  also 
learned  the  rigors  of  Austrian  intolerance,  could 
quietly  await  God's  time.  On  the  voyage  out,  he 
labored  successfully  with  three  godless  passen- 
gers. He  arrived  at  Cape  Town  July  9,  1737. 
How  was  he  received  ?  With  scorn  and  derision. 
Schmidt  established  himself  on  Sergeant's  River, 
fifty  miles  back  in  the  country ;  but,  being  com- 


356  MORAVIAN    MISSIONS.  [LECT.  ix. 

plained  of  by  hostile  farmers  as  too  near  the 
company's  post,  he  removed  the  next  spring  still 
farther  from  Cape  Town  to  the  Zondereinde.1 
Gradually  the  Hottentots  gathered  round  him, 
one  Africo  being  interpreter.  Finding,  as  had 
been  represented,  that  their  language  was  pecul- 
iarly difficult,  he  taught  them  Dutch  ;  and,  open- 
ing a  school  for  children,  he  presently  had  from 
thirty  to  fifty  pupils.  About  the  same  number 
came  at  length  to  attend  upon  the  service  which 
he  held ;  he  gained  their  confidence ;  their  con- 
sciences were  aroused,  and  some  of  them  brought 
to  a  saving  knowledge  of  the  truth.  One  of  these, 
Willem,  lived  in  the  same  hut  with  the  mission- 
ary, and  his  testimony  was  :  "  If  all  my  country- 
men were  to  forsake  the  Saviour,  yet  I  would 
not  go  away ;  for  with  him  is  life.  I  know  that 
I  am  not  yet  what  I  ought  to  be;  but  I  will  never- 
theless abide  with  Jesus,  and  will  not  cease  pray- 
ing to  him  till  I  receive  the  full  power  of  his  pre- 
cious blood  to  change  my  heart." 

But  who  are  the  Hottentots  ?  To  appreciate 
the  work  of  this  lonely  Moravian,  we  must  con- 
sider what  the  people  were  to  whom  he  devoted 
himself,  and  what  were  their  surroundings.  It 
even  still  requires  an  effort  not  to  associate  the 
negro  with  Africa  in  its  whole  wide  extent,  that 


1  The  Zondereinde,  "  Without  end,"  a  short  tributary  of  the 
Breede. 


LKCT.IX.]  THE   HOTTENTOTS.  357 

limited  race,  the  one  which  we  have  hitherto 
known  chiefly  as  representing  the  Dark  Conti- 
nent. The  pure  negro  type,  however,  is  almost 
totally  unknown  south  of  the  equator.  Below  that 
torrid  line,  comes  the  great  Bantu  family,  with 
numerous  branches  spread  over  the  lower  half 
of  the  continent.  Like  an  island  in  the  midst 
of  that  fluctuating  sea  of  dark-skinned  peoples, 
are  the  Hottentots,  with  whom  Bushmen  also 
have  hitherto  usually,  though  incorrectly,  been 
classed.  The  name,  Hottentots,  is  said  to  have 
been  given  them  by  the  Dutch,  as  denoting  stam- 
merers, and  in  derision  of  the  clicks  which  abound 
in  their  language.  Their  own  name  is  Koi-Koin, 
Men.1  They  have  narrow  foreheads,  low  skulls, 
a  tufted  matting  of  hair;  and,  although  their 
woolly  hair  is  not  quite  identical  with  that  of  the 
Bantu  tribes,  it  is  almost  the  only  characteris- 
tic possessed  in  common  with  them.  They  have 
high  cheek-bones  and  prominent  jaws ;  pointed 
chin,  snub  nose;  lips  not  swelling  to  the  same 
degree  as  the  negro ;  nor  are  they  so  dark  as 
the  negro.  Hands  and  feet  are  even  delicate  and 
beautiful,  and  so  small  that  adults  might  wear 
the  gloves  and  shoes  of  European  children  ten 
years  of  age.  They  resemble  the  Papuans  of 


1  In  older  works,  Quaiqute.  They  distinguished  themselves 
from  Bushmen,  who  were  regarded  by  Hottentots  and  Bantus 
as  hardly  human  beings. 


358  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  CLECT  ix. 

Fiji.  Though  not  tall,  they  are  not  dwarfs.1  The 
house,  dome-shaped  or  shaped  like  a  bee-hive,  is 
a  low  framework  of  sticks  thrust  into  the  earth, 
bound  together,  and  covered  with  rush  mats.  I 
speak  of  them  as  they  were  on  becoming  first 
known  to  Europeans,  when  they  were  neither 
hunters  nor  farmers,  but  herdsmen,  who  trained 
cattle  largely  for  the  purpose  of  riding.  Like  all 
Africans,  they  are  acquainted  with  smelting  iron 
and  working  that  metal.  Their  weapons  are  the 
shield,  spear,  bow  and  poisoned  arrow ;  their  food, 
chiefly  fruits  and  roots.  Men  and  women  eat  apart. 
They  can  go  without  food  for  days;  but,  in  doing 
so,  they  lessen  the  pains  of  hunger  by  tightening 
the  famine-girdle,  so  called,  about  the  person.2 
In  mourning  they  —  particularly  the  women  — 
cut  off  joints  of  their  fingers.  Children,  as  among 
the  Eskimos,  are  treated  with  great  indulgence ; 
but  in  turn  parents  are  not  treated  with  affection 
or  respect.  They,  as  well  as  the  infirm,  are  left 
exposed  in  desert  places.  The  Hottentot  is  mer- 
curial, fond  of  music,  light-hearted,  yet  capricious, 
indolent,  and  untidy  to  the  last  degree.3  His 

1  The  peculiar  formation  called  steatophyga  is  about  as  com- 
mon among  them,  and  among  Bushmen,  as  corpulency  is  among 
Europeans. 

2  So,  in  Germany,  people  on  a  journey  will  sometimes  buckle 
tightly  around  them  a  girdle,  called  Schmachtriemen,  "  girdle  of 
emptiness." 

3  The   Hottentots  might  have  sat  for  most  of  the  traits  in 
Salvian's  portrait  of  other   Africans:    Inhumani,  impuri,  ebriosi, 


LBCT.IX.]  THE   HOTTENTOTS.  359 

language,  abrupt  and  abounding  in  consonants, 
resembles  the  Shemitic  tongues  in  having  a  dual, 
and  in  having  the  pronouns  suffixed  to  other 
words.1  Its  resemblance  to  the  language  of  an- 
cient Egypt  was  first  pointed  out  by  Dr.  Moffat ; 
and  it  is  a  curious  circumstance  that  ancient 
Egyptian  sculptures  present  costumes,  utensils 
and  occupations  such  as  may  be  seen  in  any 
native  kraal2  at  the  opposite  end  of  the  continent 
today.  The  Bechuanas,  a  South-African  people, 
have  a  tradition  that  the  dead  should  be  buried 
looking  to  the  northeast,  whence  it  is  supposed 
their  forefathers  came.  Indeed,  the  traditions  of 
several  South-African  tribes  point  to  that  part 
of  the  continent  as  their  primeval  home.3  Writers 
on  anthropology  sometimes  affirm  that  primitive 
and  savage  peoples  have  no  abstract  terms,  and 
no  word  denoting  kindliness,  for  instance ;  yet 

falsissimi,  fraudulentissimi,  cupidissimi,  perfidissimi  ct  obscenis,  li- 
liidinum  omnium  impuritati  et  blasphemiis  addictissimi.  Lib.  de 
vero  Indicio. 

1  Others  deny  it  the  name  of  speech,  as  having  nothing  of 
sound  or  articulation  that  is  peculiar  to  man  in  it;  but  resem- 
bling, say  they,  the  noise  of  irritated  turkey-cocks,  the  chatter- 
ing of  magpies,  and  the  hooting  of  owls.    Kiilben:  The  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  I,  32. 

2  Kraal   like   corral  of   South  America,  a  village  of  native 
huts,  usually  in  a  circular  form,  the  cattle  being  thus  enclosed 
at  night   for   protection  against  wild  beasts.     The  word,  it  is 
said,  signified  originally  a  glass  or  coral  bead,  then  a  necklace, 
and  then  naturally  a  cincture  of  huts. 

3  Appendix  to  Keith  Johnstone's  Africa,  512. 


360  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.IX. 

the  Koi-Koin  have  such  a  terra.  The  dearth  of 
water  in  the  regions  chiefly  occupied  by  them  ne- 
cessitates migratory  habits  and  hinders  growth. 
The  bearing  and  feelings  of  Europeans  have  to 
a  large  extent  forced  them  beyond  the  limits  of 
Cape  Colony ;  while  within  the  Colony  there  re- 
main perhaps  a  hundred  thousand,  only  a  small 
part  of  whom  are  unmixed  Koi-Koin.  They  have 
lost  their  original  language,  and  now,  in  some 
good  measure,  speak  either  the  Dutch  or  a  Dutch 
patois ;  but  they  acquire  foreign  languages  quite 
readily.  They  are  exceedingly  improvident ;  and, 
as  among  so  many  other  subject  and  inferior  races, 
the  great  weakness  of  the  Hottentot  lies  in  his  use 
of  intoxicating  drinks. 

Such  were  the  people  among  whom  earliest  mis- 
sionary labor  began  a  century  and  a  half  since. 
It  was  the  day  of  small  things  in  that  direction 
throughout  the  Protestant  world.  Here  was  but 
one  man,  with  no  accessories  of  influence  from 
talent,  culture,  position,  ample  funds  or  numer- 
ous friends.  Having  received  authorization  by  let- 
ter from  home,  our  missionary  baptized  a  native, 
naming  him  Willem,  the  first-fruits  of  his  faith 
and  toil,  the  first-fruits  of  modern  Christianity 
in  Africa.  This  took  place  March  31,  1742,  in 
a  stream  by  the  way,  on  their  return  from  Cape 
Town,  after  the  manner  of  Philip  and  the  Ethi- 
opian. Others  were  baptized  somewhat  later. 
More  than  one  Hollander  in  the  neighborhood 


MCT.  ix.]  DUTCH   ADMINISTRATION.  361 

also  became  hopefully  converted  through  him. 
In  his  loneliness  and  great  disappointment,  the 
good  man's  courage  did  not  fail  him.  "  Ah,  my 
dearly  beloved  brethren  and  sisters,"  he  wrote, 
"think  on  me  and  my  poor  people!  Let  the 
incense  of  your  prayers  go  up  unceasingly  to 
the  throne  of  Majesty  on  high,  that  Jesus  Christ 
may  crown  this  work  with  his  grace  and  com- 
passion. In  closing,  I  must  remind  you  that 
I  stand  alone  hqre,  without  helpers,  and  that  I 
greatly  long  for  one.  Let  everything  that  hath 
breath  praise  the  Lord !  Hallelujah !  "  But  the 
announcement  that  Hottentots  were  being  recog- 
nized as  men,  and  .even  as  Christians,  caused 
astonishment  among  the  Dutch  colonists.  To 
their  notions,  their  neglects,  their  abuses,  this 
was  a  silent  rebuke  not  to  be  tolerated.  Pride 
and  self-interest  took  the  alarm.  Schmidt  was 
prohibited  from  baptizing  any  more  natives,  and 
compelled  to  return  to  Europe.  What  a  position 
his  —  the  first,  and  for  six  years  a  solitary,  Chris- 
tian laborer  among  the  millions  of  heathen  Africa, 
virtually  driven  away  by  Protestant  Europeans, 
and  not  allowed  to  return  to  his  post! 

To  comprehend  this  anomaly,  we  must  glance  at 
the  sentiments  and  proceedings  of  the  Dutch,  who 
then  held  the  Cape.  Such  a  sketch  will  throw 
light  on  the  condition  of  mind  in  certain  parts  of 
Christendom  at  that  day.  Two  hundred  years 
had  gone  by,  after  the  discovery  of  the  Cape  of 


362  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.IX. 

Good  Hope,  before  Hollanders  established  them- 
selves there  (1652).  Thej^,  like  their  Portuguese 
predecessors,  foresaw  the  advantage  of  such  a  half- 
way house  for  supplying  their  ships  engaged  in 
the  lucrative  East  India  trade.  The  East  India 
Company  of  Holland  established  the  most  despotic 
regulations  and  illiberal  restrictions.  Many  of  the 
early  colonists  were  anything  but  the  best  material 
for  such  an  enterprise,  the  Dutch  Government  hav- 
ing sent  out  one  hundred  men  and  as  many  women 
from  the  Houses  of  Industry  at  Amsterdam.  Six 
years  after  the  planting  of  this  colony,  the  first 
cargo  of  slaves  was  imported  from  Guinea ;  others 
were  brought  from  the  eastern  coast  and  from 
Madagascar.  Thus  the  servitude  of  Africans  to 
Europeans  was  one  of  the  earliest  lessons  which  the 
new  civilization  introduced ;  and  only  in  1807  did 
the  last  importation  of  slaves  take  place.  A  com- 
pany of  French  and  Piedrnontese,  chiefly  Hugue- 
nots, numbering  three  hundred  souls,  driven  from 
their  country  upon  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  were  made  welcome  (1685-88)  ;  but  they 
afterwards  found  that  the  tyranny  of  the  French 
monarch  was  reflected  in  the  petty  despots  of  this 
colony — one  of  the  strange  inconsistencies  of  a 
liberty-loving  people  who  had  themselves  suffered 
so  much  from  oppression,  and  who,  with  heroic  en- 
ergy, had  cast  off  a  foreign  yoke. 

Strongly  does  the  selfish  and  cruel  policy  pur- 
sued toward  native  tribes  at  the  Cape   contrast 


LECT.IX.I  DUTCH  ADMINISTRATION.  363 

with  that  of  our  Pilgrim  Fathers,  who  had 
landed  not  long  before  on  our  shores,  and  who, 
from  the  outset,  kept  in  mind  the  welfare  of  the 
Indian.  Friendly  relations  with  the  Hottentot 
were  maintained  at  first;  but,  as  soon  as  safety 
seemed  to  admit,  injustice,  and  even  barbarity, 
began  to  be  practiced.  Before  the  first  year 
had  passed,  Van  Riebeck,  Governor  of  the  Dutch 
Colony,  in  his  journal,  dated  December,  1652, 
says:  "The  Hottentots  came,  with  thousands  of 
cattle  and  sheep,  close  to  our  fort,  but  we 
could  not  succeed  in  traffic  with  them.  We  feel 
vexed  to  see  so  many  fine  herds  of  cattle,  and  not 
to  be  able  to  buy  to  any  considerable  extent.  If 
it  had  been  indeed  allowed,  we  had  opportunity 
enough  to  deprive  them  today  of  ten  thousand 
head  ;  which,  however,  if  we  obtain  orders  to  that 
effect,  can  be  done  at  any  time,  and  even  more 
conveniently,  because  they  will  by  that  time  have 
greater  confidence  in  us.  With  one  hundred  and 
fifty  men,  eleven  thousand  head  of  black  cattle 
might  be  obtained  without  danger  of  losing  one 
man ;  and  many  savages  might  be  taken  without 
resistance,  in  order  to  be  sent  as  slaves  to  India, 
as  they  will  always  come  to  us  unarmed.  If  no 
further  trade  is  to  be  expected  with  them,  what 
should  it  matter  much  to  take  at  once  six  or  eight 
thousand  beasts  from  them  ?  There  is  opportunity 
enough  for  it,  as  they  are  not  strong  in  number, 
and  very  timid,  and  since  not  more  than  two 


364  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.  ix. 

or  three  men  often  graze  a  thousand  cattle  close 
to  our  cannons,  who  might  be  easily  cut  off."1 
The  truculent  thought,  here  expressed,  afterwards 
passed  into  fact. 

Suspicion  and  fear  naturally  took  deep  hold  of 
the  native  mind.  The  colonists  encroached  more 
and  more  upon  their  territory ;  they  were  driven 
back,  yet  not  beyond  the  reach  of  marauding 
Europeans,  who,  as  they  became  stronger,  would 
carry  fire  and  sword  into  the  native  villages,  with 
a  determination  to  drive  them  from  the  colony, 
except  as  the  want  of  herdsmen  or  of  men  to  till 
the  soil  might  spare  these  wretched  beings  for 
slavery.  But,  when  reduced  to  bondage,  and 
brought  into  contact  with  people  bearing  the 
Christian  name,  they  were  not  encouraged,  often 
not  allowed,  to  avail  themselves  of  religious  privi- 
leges. They  had  usually  no  place  within  conse- 
crated walls.  Over  the  doors  of  one  church  was 
posted  the  notice:  "Hottentots  and  dogs  forbid- 
den to  enter!"2 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why  men  sanc- 
tioning such  terrorism  and  sharing  in  it  should 
become  hostile  to  missionary  efforts  in  behalf  of 
abused  Hottentots  and  Bushmen.  Cruelty  to  na- 
tives and  opposition  to  missionary  labor  were 
strangely  associated  with  orthodoxy  and  a  punc- 
tilious observance  of  usual  religious  forms.  It  was 

1  The  Wrongs  of  the  Caffre  Nation,  3,  note. 

2  Philip's  Researches,  I,  58. 


LJCT.IX.]  SCHMIDT  EXPELLED.  365 

something  new  among  them  for  any  one  to  regard 
the  natives  as  human  beings.  They  were  accus- 
tomed to  speak  of  them  as  "  black  wares,"  "  black 
beasts,"  "black  creatures,"  understanding  thereby 
not  creatures  of  God,  but  of  the  Devil.  The  pres- 
ence of  George  Schmidt  was  an  unendurable  eye- 
sore. His  communications  to  Holland  and  to 
Herrnhut  might  reveal  things  that  would  startle 
Europeans  at  home.  In  point  of  fact,  he  had  been 
extremely  guarded  in  this  particular.  Little  pains 
were  required  to  stir  up  the  strongest  prejudice 
against  him,  and  to  make  it  appear  that  his  work 
implied  peril  to  colonial  interests,  as  was  the  case 
under  the  English  East  India  Company's  sway  in 
India.  That  work  imperiled  nothing  but  the  in- 
terests of  selfishness  and  inhumanity.  So  excited 
and  tyrannical  did  the  Colonial  Government  be- 
come as  to  deprive  a  parish  clerk  of  his  appoint- 
ment, and  order  him  home,  for  having  been  asso- 
ciated with  Schmidt.  The  faithful  missionary, 
whose  only  offence  was  that  he  had  preached  the 
gospel  to  poor  heathen,1  of  whom  Christian  invad- 
ers would  make  merchandise,  could  never  obtain 
leave  to  return  to  South  Africa.  After  a  season 
of  evangelistic  labor  in  Silesia,  on  the  confines  of 
Bohemia  and  Moravia,  he  supported  himself  as  a 
day-laborer  at  Niesky,  and  finally  as  a  sexton  and 

1  His  congregation  at  the  time  he  left  numbered  forty-seven 
persons. 


866  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.IX. 

grave-digger.  Seventy-six  years  of  age,  he  at- 
tended divine  service  one  day  (August  1,  1785) ; 
worked  in  his  garden  the  next  morning  for  a 
while ;  went  to  his  little  room  to  pray  in  private, 
as  usual,  for  South  Africa;  and  at  noon  was  in 
Paradise.  Like  Livingstone,  he  died  upon  his 
knees. 

Not  till  after  more  than  fifty  years  (1792)  was 
the  mission  renewed.  The  Presidency  of  the 
Board  of  Directors  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Com- 
pany was  now  filled  by  a  gentleman  friendly 
to  the  Moravians ;  and  so  their  request  for  permis- 
sion to  reestablish  a  missionary  settlement  among 
the  Hottentots  received  a  very  favorable  answer. 
Three  Brethren,  Marsveld,  Schwinn  and  Kiihnel, 
went  to  the  Cape,  and,  upon  recommendation,  pro- 
ceeded to  a  place  eighty  miles  eastward,  called 
"Bavian's  Kloof,"  Baboon's  Glen.1  It  proved  to 
be  the  very  spot  where  George  Schmidt  had  la- 
bored. A  part  of  the  walls  of  his  house  was  still 
standing.  Among  the  briers  of  his  garden  were 
some  fruit-trees,  and  particularly  a  noble  pear-tree, 
a  fine  emblem  of  spiritual  results  from  seed  planted 
by  him  during  his  short  stay  at  the  Glen.  Its 
shade  now  served  for  five  years  as  both  church 

1  Rowley,  in  Africa  Unveiled,  270,  gives  the  distance  as  one 
hundred  and  twenty  miles,  and  on  the  next  page  states  that 
Genadendal  is  about  eighty  miles  from  Cape  Town,  not  aware, 
apparently,  that  these  are  two  names  for  the  same  place.  The 
word  is  properly  "  Baviaan." 


LKCT.IX.]  MISSION  RENEWED.  367 

and  school-house.  "I  am  thankful  and  ashamed," 
said  one  of  those  Hottentots  who  flocked  around 
the  missionary  Brethren,  "that  such  a  great  sin- 
ner should  be  thus  favored  by  our  Saviour.  I  re- 
member what  my  late  father  used  to  say,  exhorting 
us  children  to  take  notice  and  follow  those  people 
who  would  come  from  a  distant  country,  and  show 
us  Hottentots  a  narrow  way  by  which  we  might 
escape  from  the  great  fire,  and  find  the  true  God. 
When  the  first  teachers  came  to  show  us  that  way, 
the  farmers  were  very  angry,  and  told  us  that  they 
meant  to  sell  us  as  slaves.  But  I  remembered  my 
father's  words,  and  would  not  be  prevented  from 
moving  to  Bavian's  Kloof.  Now,  when  I  consider 
what  the  Lord  has  done  for  me,  my  heart  is  melted 
within  me."  A  half-blind  woman,  Magdalena  by 
name,  fourscore  years  of  age,  who  had  received  the 
ordinance  of  baptism  from  his  hands,  came  with 
a  Dutch  New  Testament  which  he  had  given  her, 
and  which  she  preserved  carefully  wrapped  in  two 
sheepskins.  "Those  that  be  planted  in  the  house 
of  the  Lord  shall  flourish  in  the  courts  of  our  God; 
they  shall  still  bring  forth  fruit  in  old  age."  And 
so  from  time  to  time,  for  years,  the  new  mission- 
aries found  evidence  that  this  was  a  branch  of  the 
Lord's  planting.1  Within  a  twelvemonth  after 

1  Sparrman,  afterwards  a  companion  of  Captain  Cook,  found 
natives  who  had  grateful  recollections  of  Schmidt's  kindness,  and 
showed  the  fruits  of  his  teaching,  thirty  years  subsequent  to  the 
missionary's  retirement  from  South  Africa. 


368  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.IX. 

the  renewal  of  the  mission,  some  half  a  dozen  were 
baptized.  "We  cannot,"  the  missionaries  write, 
"  find  words  to  express  the  powerful  sensation  of 
the  grace  of  God  which  prevailed  on  these  occa- 
sions, and  the  impression  made  on  those  who  were 
present.  These  days  were  truly  festival  days  to 
us.  The  Hottentots  were  visibly  affected,  and  de- 
clared their  earnest  desire  to  be  made  partakers  of 
the  same  grace." 

Dutch  farmers  opposed  and  maligned  the  mis- 
sionaries and  converts.  They  would  give  out 
that,  while  God  created  Christians,  Hottentots  be- 
longed to  the  race  of  baboons;  that  they  were 
liable  to  be  shot  or  enslaved.  "  You  stupid  crea- 
ture ! "  said  a  farmer's  wife  to  a  Hottentot  girl 
who  wished  to  leave  her  service  and  go  to  Bavian's 
Kloof;  "you  stupid  creature  !  What!  do  you  think 
these  Moravians  would  come  from  such  a  great 
distance  merely  to  teach  you  God's  Word?  No 
indeed:  they  are  poor  people,  and  mean  to  be- 
come rich  by  you;  for  when  you  have  learned 
something,  they  then  intend  to  sell  you."  The 
irate  colonists  reported  that  the  Moravians  taught 
the  natives  to  steal,  murder,  and  commit  other 
enormities ;  they  even  went  so  far  as  to  declare, 
"  If  the  missionaries  come  here  to  convert  the 
Hottentots,  they  ought  immediately  to  be  put  to 
death." 

A  desire  to  receive  instruction  from  Christian 
teachers,  however,  increased  among  the  Hot- 


LECT.IX.]  OPPOSITION  EENEWED.  369 

tentots;  but  it  was  seldom  an  easy  thing  to  ob- 
tain that  advantage.  One  of  them,  whose  term  of 
service  with  a  farmer  had  expired,  was  on  his  way 
to  Bavian's  Kloof,  when  the  farmer  sent  three 
armed  men  in  pursuit,  who  threatened  to  shoot 
him,  and  forced  him  to  return  and  serve  another 
year.  Sometimes  the  natives,  fearing  detention, 
would  not  venture  to  ask  for  their  hard-earned 
wages,  lest  they  should  be  prevented  from  going 
to  the  station.  Animosity  continued  with  vary- 
ing forms  and  degrees  of  violence.  So  intense 
and  reckless  did  the  opposition  of  neighboring 
farmers  become  at  one  time  (1795-6)  as  to  culmi- 
nate in  an  organization  of  a  hundred  men  armed 
for  the  purpose  of  murdering  the  Brethren  ;  but 
no  sooner  had  they  gathered  at  their  place  of 
rendezvous  than  a  message  from  the  British  gen- 
eral announced  the  discovery  of  their  plot,  and 
thus  the  settlement  was  saved.  Attempts  were 
now  made  to  starve  out  the  missionaries  by  refusal 
to  send  them  necessary  supplies ;  but  that  scheme 
also  failed.  During  an  armed  insurrection  of 
Boers,  who  were  determined  to  obtain  redress  for 
their  alleged  grievances,  among  the  articles  of 
their  memorial  to  Government  were  the  following, 
which  show  their  animus :  "  That  they  would  al- 
low no  Moravians  to  live  in  the  country  and  in- 
struct the  Hottentots;  for,  as  there  were  many 
Christians  in  the  colony  who  received  no  educa- 
tion, it  was  not  proper  that  the  Hottentots  should 
24 


370  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.IX. 

be  made  wiser  than  they,  but  that  they  should  re- 
main in  the  same  state  as  before."  "  All  Bosjes- 
mans,  or  wild  Hottentots,  caught  by  us,  must 
remain  slaves  for  life."  Persecution  received  a 
check,  however,  during  the  English  Protectorate 
(1795-1803),  and  was  still  further  curbed  when 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  was  definitely  ceded 
(1815)  to  Great  Britain  by  the  King  of  Holland. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  settlement  at  Bavian's 
Kloof  increased  despite  of  violent  prejudice  and 
opposition.  Missionary  reinforcements  from  Eu- 
rope were  called  for;  and,  only  five  years  after 
the  work  had  been  resumed  (1797),  a  church 
building  was  put  up  capable  of  accommodating 
several  hundred  hearers,  there  being  at  that  time 
two  hundred  and  twenty-eight  Hottentot  dwell- 
ings, and  eighty-four  baptized  members  of  the 
community.  The  mission  gradually  gained  upon 
the  confidence  of  the  better  part  of  European 
residents.  Jansen,  the  Dutch  Governor,  having 
raised  a  corps  of  Hottentot  soldiers,  asked  to  have 
a  Moravian  military  chaplain  appointed ;  and  one 
of  the  missionaries,  Kohrammer,  designated  for 
that  purpose,  moved  to  the  camp,  near  Cape 
Town  (1804),  where  his  labors  were  blessed. 
After  the  English  captured  that  place  (1806), '  the 

1  On  board  one  of  the  ships  in  the  fleet  which  conveyed 
British  troops  to  the  Cape  at  this  time,  was  Henry  Martyn, 
bound  for  India.  While  Moravian  missionaries  were  engaged 
in  prayer  on  shore,  he  was  similarly  occupied  in  his  cabin,  when 


LECT.  IX.] 


GROWTH.  371 


Governor  showed  much  friendliness  to  the  Mora- 
vian Brethren.  The  old  name  of  Glen  or  Den 
of  Baboons  (Bavian's  Kloof)  had  been  changed 
to  Genadendal,1  Vale  of  Grace,  which  happily 
indicated  the  moral  transformation  there  effected. 
The  first  English  Governor,  Lord  Caledon,  even 
solicited  the  Brethren  to  establish  a  new  settle- 
ment on  land  offered  them  for  that  purpose 
(1808);  and  the  station  Groenekloof,  Green  Glen, 
was  the  result.  After  witnessing  the  baptism  of 
five  Hottentots,  a  venerable  man,  a  privy  coun- 
cilor, said  to  one  of  the  missionaries :  "  Permit 
me  to  go  into  your  room,  that  I  may  give  vent 
to  my  feelings."  He  then  exclaimed  :  "  Oh,  what 
real  happiness  do  you,  my  dear  friend,  enjoy 
among  your  brethren  and  sisters  I  May  God 
Almighty  continue  to  bless  your  labors  among 
the  Hottentots  with  abundant  success!  Never 
has  my  heart  felt  what  it  did  this  day.  Happy 
are  those  poor  Hottentots  who  have  the  favor  to 


not  ministering  to  the  wounded  after  the  capture  of  the  place ; 
anil  he  wrote :  "  The  Blue  Mountains  to  the  eastward,  which 
formed  the  boundary  of  the  prospect,  were  a  cheering  contrast 
to  what  was  immediately  before  me;  for  there  I  conceived  my 
beloved  and  honored  fellow-servants,  companions  in  the  king- 
dom and  patience  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  be  passing' the  days  of 
their  pilgrimage  far  from  the  world,  imparting  the  truths  of 
the  blessed  gospel  to  benighted  souls."  Life  of  Henry  Martyn, 
170. 

1  The  original   and  proper  orthography  is  Gnadcnthal ;   but 
Genadendal  is  now  universally  adopted  by  English  writers. 


372  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.IX. 

live  with  and  be  instructed  by  you :  for  it  is 
indeed  true  what  they  sing,  'The  Lord  hath  done 
great  things  for  us.'  " 

When  the  jubilee  festival  of  Genadendal  came 
round  in  1842,  it  appeared  that  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  eighty-one  adults,  and  over 
two  thousand  children  (2,027),  had  there  received 
baptism ; '  and,  when  the  corresponding  semi- 
centenarjr  of  Mamre,2  the  second  settlement  that 
was  formed  —  about  forty  miles  north  of  Cape 
Town  —  took  place  (1858),  seven  hundred  and 
seventy -eight  adults  and  over  sixteen  hundred 
(1,654)  children  had  shared  in  the  same  ordi- 
nance. 

It  is  too  late  to  inquire  if  a  people  so  rude  as 
the  Koi-Koin,  so  near  the  lowest  grade  of  man- 
kind, can  be  brought  to  accept  the  truths  of  the 
gospel;  too  late  to  ask  whether  minds  so  dark- 
ened, whether  natures  so  brutalized  for  untold 
generations,  will  respond  to  the  touch  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  thus  affording  additional  confirmation  to 
the  unity  of  our  race,  and  to  the  efficacy  of  our 
holy  religion.  Hottentots,  it  is  found,  are  sus- 
ceptible, for  instance,  to  the  feeling  of  guilt. 
One  of  them,3  rehearsing  truths  which  a  mission- 
ary had  stated  to  her,  says :  "  These  words  seized 

1  A  training-school  of  native  helpers  was  established  in 
1838. 

3  Till  1854  called  Groenekloof. 
3  Hannah  Jonker. 


IKCT.  ix.]  GROWTH.  373 

upon  my  heart  like  a  fever,  and  I  trembled  all 
over.  I  ran  into  the  fields,  hid  myself  behind  the 
bushes,  and  cried  day  and  night  to  God  for  mercy. 
All  my  sins  appeared  before  me  in  their  damning 
power.  When  it  grew  dark,  I  durst  not  venture 
to  lie  down,  for  I  thought  I  should  die  and  be 
lost  forever.  One  morning,  I  went  to  one  of  the 
missionaries  and  told  him  that  there  was  no  help 
for  me,  for  I  was  a  lost  sinner.  His  answer  was, 
'  Do  not  come  to  me  any  more  as  an  orphan  that 
has  lost  father  and  mother,  but  know  that  you 
have  a  Father  in  heaven  who  can  and  will  help 
you.'  I  took  courage  and  thought,  If  I  have  a 
Father  in  heaven,  I  will  trust  and  cleave  to  him. 
The  Lord  appeared  for  me,  and  I  was  helped." 
"I  am  sitting  in  the  midst  of  my  sins,"  one  of 
them  replies,  "like  a  man  sitting  in  the  fire,  and 
am  ready  to  be  choked  and  consumed  by  the 
anguish  of  my  soul ;  I  stretch  my  arms  towards 
heaven  and  cry,  'Lord  Jesus,  give  me  but  one 
drop  of  thy  grace  to  quench  the  fire  burning 
within ! ' :  Do  they  evince  an  abiding  love  to 
Christ  ?  "  True  it  is,"  answers  a  Hottentot,  "  that 
I  am  a  poor  sinner,  but  I  have  lost  all  taste  for 
the  things  of  this  world.  When  I  am  at  work, 
I  think  of  the  things  of  our  Saviour.  If  I  am  in 
company,  I  hardly  hear  what  is  going  forward ; 
for  my  heart  is  with  him.  When  I  lie  down  to 
sleep,  I  pray  to  him ;  and  I  dream  of  the  meetings 
in  the  church.  I  enjoy  at  present  great  happi- 


374  MOEAVIAK  MISSIONS.  [LECT.IX. 

ness.  Oh,  help  me  to  pray  that  I  may  not  soon 
lose  it  again."  "  Oh,  yes,"  says  another,  "  he  is 
my  highest  good ;  I  have  nothing  beside  him  in 
this  world.  He  hears  all  my  complaints,  and  I 
can  converse  more  freely  with  him  than  with  my 
best  friend.  Sometimes  I  could  not  help  praying 
to  and  praising  him  upon  the  road,  with  a  loud 
voice,  so  that  the  passengers  heard  me."  Is  the 
conflict  between  flesh  and  spirit  something  which 
they  are  acquainted  with?  Listen:  A  young 
man,  being  asked  whether  he  loved  our  Saviour 
with  his  whole  heart,  replied :  "  No,  not  with  my 
whole  heart ;  one  half  is  directed  towards  him, 
but  the  other  towards  fine  clothes,  horses,  and 
other  objects."  Still  another  declares  :  "  When- 
ever I  endeavor  in  right  good  earnest  to  live 
according  to  the  will  of  God,  it  is  as  if  the  enemy 
were  particularly  busy  ;  and  the  road  to  my  only 
Helper  and  Saviour  seems,  as  it  were,  laid  with 
huge,  rough  stones,  over  which  I  have  to  climb, 
struggling  that  I  may  get  to  him.  I  then  cry 
aloud  to  him  for  help,  that  I  may  not  fall  and 
be  prevented  approaching ;  and  he  gives  me 
power,  through  his  sufferings  and  death,  to  over- 
come the  Evil  One." 

Notice  the  working  of  their  heart  in  view  of 
backsliding,  and  imperfections  not  yet  overcome. 
"I  cannot  speak  with  you,"  says  a  Hottentot 
woman,  "  for  my  heart  is  like  a  piece  of  land  over 
which  the  torrents  have  burst,  and  covered  it 
with  sand  and  rubbish,  till  the  good  ground  is 


LECT.  IX.] 


GROWTH.  375 


no  longer  visible."  One  Philip,  who  had  fallen 
into  open  sin,  became  deeply  convicted  of  his 
wickedness.  In  a  despairing  frame  of  mind,  he 
was  admitted  to  the  family  worship  of  a  farmer, 
and  heard  the  parable  of  the  Pharisee  and  pub- 
lican read.  While  the  prayer  of  the  Pharisee 
was  read,  the  poor  Hottentot  thought  within 
himself,  "This  is  a  good  man;  here  is  nothing 
for  me  ;  "  but  when  his  master  came  to  the  prayer 
of  the  publican,  "God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sin- 
ner," "  this  suits  me,"  he  cried ;  "  now  I  know 
how  to  pray ! "  With  this  prayer  he  retired,  and 
prayed  night  and  day  for  two  days,  and  then 
found  peace.  Full  of  joy  and  gratitude,  he  went 
into  the  fields,  and,  as  he  had  no  one  to  whom 
he  could  speak,  he  exclaimed:  "Ye  hills,  ye 
rocks,  ye  trees,  ye  rivers!  hear  what  God  has 
done  for  my  soul;  he  has  been  merciful  to  me 
a  sinner  !  "  Beautiful  instances  of  resignation, 
trust  in  the  heavenly  Father,  and  patient,  joyous 
endurance,  occur.  "  God  formed  our  eyes,"  said 
a  native,  sick  and  suffering  from  want,  "  God 
formed  our  eyes  in  such  a  manner  that  we  cannot 
see  what  happens  on  the  other  side  of  yonder 
hill,  and  I  never  heard  any  one  complain  of  it. 
Our  mind's  eye  is  formed  in  the  same  manner, 
for  we  cannot  look  into  futurity.  Why  should 
we,  then,  be  dissatisfied?  No;  let  us  put  our 
trust  in  Him  who  sees  all  things,  and  He  will 
help  us  through  every  difficulty."  At  Genaden- 
dal,  a  Kafir  woman,  Rebecca  Jochem,  though  con- 


876  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.IX. 

fined  to  her  bed  by  a  painful  illness  (1848),  said 
to  a  missionary:  "No  famished  dog  can  devour 
its  morsel  with  greater  eagerness  than  I  do  when 
I  feast  from  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  my  Sav- 
iour's table." 

In  all  older  and  established  Christian  commu- 
nities, there  occur  certain  tests  of  religious  char- 
acter. Mutual  confession  and  forgiveness  of  in- 
juries is  one.  Now,  here  comes  a  South-African 
communicant,  acknowledging  that  there  has  been 
a  quarrel  between  her  and  her  husband,  but  she 
adds :  "  Our  Saviour  has  granted  us  grace  to  be 
friends  again.  We  owned  and  confessed  to  each 
other  our  sins,  and,  kneeling  down,  prayed  him 
to  take  all  enmity  and  bitterness  away  from  us. 
He  heard  our  prayers,  and  we  now  live  in 
peace."  A  soldier  comes  forward,  confessing  that 
he  has  committed  great  sin :  "  Oh,  I  have  struck 
my  brother,  in  a  fit  of  anger,  and  now  I  feel  ex- 
ceedingly grieved  for  it."  The  missionary  sends 
for  the  aggrieved  brother,  and  asks  if  he  can 
forgive  the  offender.  "  Yes,  my  dear  teacher," 
he  replies,  "  that  will  I  do  with  my  whole  heart ; " 
whereupon  he  reaches  out  his  hand;  and  the 
two  brothers  embrace  and  kiss  each  other,  and 
weep  for  joy.  Gratitude  for  favors,  temporal  and 
spiritual,  does  not  always  characterize  converts 
from  heathenism.  "  Oh,  how  happy  are  we  now," 
exclaimed  a  converted  Hottentot,  in  the  presence 
of  a  missionary ;  "  Oh,  how  happy  are  we  now, 
since  it  has  pleased  God  to  send  teachers  to  us 


LECT.IX.]  PSYCHIC   SIMILARITY.  377 

to  make  us  acquainted  with  his  Word,  and  with 
the  love  of  our  Saviour  towards  us!  We  were 
formerly  not  permitted  to  pronounce  the  name 
of  God  in  our  own  language  ;  a  lash  would  im- 
mediately follow.  '  What ! '  said  my  baas,  '  you 
wretch !  Do  you  call  upon  God  ?  I  am  your 
God ! '  Or  else  he  would  say,  '  Baboons  that 
you  are !  you  have  no  God  but  the  Hottentots' 
God.' " 

As  soon  as  the  constellation  of  the  Seven  Stars 
appears  annually  above  the  horizon,  parents  wake 
their  children,  and,  taking  them  into  the  fields, 
point  out  the  beautiful  visitor  in  the  heavens; 
and  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  kraal  dance  and 
sing.  To  this  people,  which  sat  in  the  region 
and  shadow  of  death,  light  is  sprung  up,  and 
they  leap  for  joy.  When,  in  1815,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Latrobe,  from  England,  paid  an  official  visit  to 
the  mission  in  South  Africa,  he  was  met  at 
various  points  by  Hottentot  converts  with  hymns 
and  other  demonstrations  of  joy,  accounting  him 
a  representative  of  the  churh  to  which  they  owed 
so  much.  Such  testimonies  reveal  a  psychic  iden- 
tity between  us  and  them.  They  make  us  for- 
get physical,  mental  and  social  differences,  and 
awaken  the  feeling  of  brotherhood  with  Hotten- 
tots, and  joyful  anticipation  of  meeting  such  as, 
like  Corinthian  converts,  are  washed,  sanctified, 
justified  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  by 
the  Spirit  of  our  God. 


LECTURE  X. 

SOUTH    AFRICA. 

CONCLUDED. 


SOUTH    AFRICA. 

CONCLUDED. 


THE  term  "  South  Africa  "  has  of  late  come  to 
be  a  little  uncertain  in  its  signification.  Occasion- 
ally it  is  used  to  cover  the  whole  extent  of  conti- 
nent south  of  the  equator.  In  a  purely  geograph- 
ical sense,  and  irrespective  of  political  divisions, 
it  may  take  in  all  that  lies  below  the  Zambesi, 
if  not  indeed  including  the  basin  of  that  river, 
which  basin  embraces  also  one  or  more  of  the  great 
lakes.  Such  a  distribution  grows  out  of  a  three- 
fold partition  of  Africa  into  Northern,  Central 
or  Equatorial,  and  Southern.  We  may  define  the 
upper  limit  of  this  southern  portion  by  a  line 
from  Walvisch  Bay  on  the  Atlantic  across  to  the 
Indian  Ocean,  below  which  is  an  area  equal  tp 
the  United  States  east  of  the  Mississippi  River. 
Till  within  a  few  years,  the  term  "  South  Africa  " 
was  popularly  understood  as  restricted  pretty 
much  to  the  Cape  Colony,  but  has  been  under- 
going enlargement,  in  the  thought  of  the  outside 
world,  since  the  Colony  of  Natal  was  planted, 
and  especially  since  the  British  annexation  of  the 
Transvaal  Republic  in  1877  and  also  of  extensive 
tracts  to  the  west. 

(381) 


382  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.X. 

Stationing  ourselves  at  Cape  Agulhas,  the 
southernmost  point  of  the  continent,  and  consid- 
erably below  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  we  find  a 
bold  coast  swept  by  rapid  currents  and  confront- 
ing a  stormy  sea.  Looking  landward,  we  see  a 
coast-belt  sloping  in  a  series  of  terraces  up  to 
the  truncated  summit  of  a  mountain-range  that 
runs  nearly  parallel  with  the  sea,  and  that,  sweep- 
ing round  to  the  right  and  to  the  left,  stretches 
northward  like  a  rampart  facing  two  oceans,  the 
Indian  and  the  Atlantic.  Journeying  toward 
the  interior  from  any  point,  we  find  another 
mountain-range  considerably  higher,  which  is  the 
border  of  the  vast  continental  table-land,  and 
which  has  elevations  of  eight  thousand  and  ten 
thousand  feet.  None  of  the  rivers  are  navigable ; 
most  of  them,  especially  in  the  western  section, 
are  torrents  in  the  rainy  season,  which  sometimes 
rise  twenty  and  thirty  feet  in  a  few  hours,  but 
have  dry  beds  the  rest  of  the  year,  like  the 
wadys  of  Northern  Africa  and  of  Western  Asia. 
Owing  to  evaporation  in  the  desert  tracts  through 
which  it  flows,  the  Orange,  or  Great  Garib,  is 
larger  hundreds  of  miles  from  the  sea  than  at 
its  mouth,  and  it  drains  rather  than  irrigates  the 
country.  South  Africa  has  no  lakes.  In  general, 
the  climate  is  delightful  and  healthful ;  its  atmos- 
phere very  dry,  clear  and  brilliant,  is  favorable  to 
those  having  pulmonary  weakness;  and  this  is  one 
of  the  few  inhabited  portions  of  our  world  which 


LECT.  x.]  PEODUCTIONS.  383 

have  never  known  the  scourge  of  cholera  or  yellow 
fever.  Indeed,  it  is  one  of  the  most  salubrious  re- 
gions on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

South  Africa  has,  on  the  whole,  a  rich  and 
varied  flora,  differing  from  the  rest  of  the  con- 
tinent, and  from  all  other  countries  except  Aus- 
tralia and  Chili.  Its  bulbs  and  its  orchids  are 
famous,  its  grasses  numberless  and  elegant.  The 
Constantia  grape  has  the  reputation  of  being  un- 
surpassed; and  historically  it  is  interesting  as 
a  memento  of  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes;  for  upon  that  event  Protestant  exiles 
from  France  brought  with  them  slips  of  vines, 
and  a  flourishing  grape-culture  was  the  result. 
Nor  is  mineral  wealth  wanting.  In  Namaqua- 
land  are  copper-mines  accounted  among  the  rich- 
est known.  In  the  Transvaal,  valuable  gold- 
mines have  been  found ; '  while  the  Griqua  coun- 
try in  the  fork  of  the  Vaal  and  Orange  Rivers,  and 
on  the  confines  of  the  Great  Sahara  of  the  South, 
disclosed  (1867)  one  of  the  few  diamond-yielding 
regions  that  are  known  to  man.  Where  pre- 
viously there  was  only  a  handful  of  natives,  sixty 
thousand  Europeans  were  soon  congregated.  The 
dry  diggings  seem  to  be  strown  with  precious 
stones;  between  fifty  and  a  hundred  millions' 


1  1872-73,  Baincs,  Thomas :  The  Gold  Regions  of  Southeastern 
Africa.  London  and  Cape  Colony,  1877.  Boyle,  Frederick :  To 
the  Cape  for  Diamonds.  London,  1873. 


384  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.X. 

worth  of  jewels  have  been  found,  and  among 
them  one,  the  "  Star  of  South  Africa,"  valued, 
even  before  its  cutting,  at  fifty-six  thousand  dol- 
lars. 

Here  is  the  sportsman's  paradise.1  Nowhere 
else  has  there  existed  game  in  such  quantities, 
nor  of  such  grades  as  to  size,  from  the  pigmy 
antelope  six  inches  in  length  to  the  giraffe  seven- 
teen feet  high ;  also  as  to  weight,  from  the  black- 
streaked  mouse  weighing  the  fourth  of  an  ounce 
to  the  elephant  weighing  four  thousand  pounds. 
Less  than  forty  species  of  antelopes  are  known 
to  natural  history,  and  of  these  about  thirty  are 
found  here.  The  springbok  has  sometimes  been 
met  with  in  herds  of  four  or  five  thousand.  The 
hippopotamus,  the  rhinoceros,  the  quagga,  the 
zebra,  the  lion  and  the  leopard  abounded  formerly 
as  in  no  other  country.  The  advance  of  civilized 
man  is  gradually  driving  these  larger  animals 


1  Gumming,  R.  Gordon :  Ten  Years  of  a  Hunter's  Life  in  the 
Far  Interior  of  South  Africa.  2  vols.  New  York,  1850. 

Baldwin,  William  C. :  African  Hunting,  from  Natal  to  the  Zam- 
besi. New  York,  1868. 

Hamilton,  Charles  :  Sketches  of  Life  and  Sport  in  Southeastern 
Africa.  London,  1870. 

Chapman,  James :  Travels  in  the  Interior  of  South  Africa.  2 
vols.  London,  1868. 

Gilmore,  Parker:  The  Great  Thirst-Land.  Second  edition. 
London. 

Sandeman,  E.  F. :  Eight  Months  in  an  Ox- Waggon.  London, 
1880. 


LBOT.  x.]  KARROOS.  385 

towards  the  interior;  yet  a  daring  Nimrod  like 
Gordon  Gumming  has  even  now  only  to  go  far- 
ther inland,  toward  Central  Africa,  to  find  game 
and  perilous  adventure  to  his  heart's  content. 

Two  parallel  mountain-ranges  have  been  spoken 
of.  Between  those  ranges  is  a  tract  aggregating 
twenty  thousand  square  miles,  called  Karroo,  or 
"  dry,"  because  for  nine  months  of  the  year  there 
is  no  vegetation.  Full  one  half  the  surface  of 
Southern  Africa  is  of  that  description.  These 
Karroo  valleys,  covered  with  a  yellowish  soil,  be- 
come nearly  as  hard  as  brick ;  but  no  sooner  do 
rains  begin  to  fall  than  the  desert  plains  clothe 
themselves  as  if  by  magic  with  gorgeous  flowers, 
and  with  herbage  which  invites  the  flocks  and 
herds.  It  is  on  the  terraced  table-land  by  which 
the  outer  mountain-chain  breaks  down  toward  the 
seacoast,  that  groups  of  missionary  stations  have 
been  established  by  Moravians,  which,  with  those 
of  other  Christian  bodies,  are  beginning  to  change 
the  moral  aspect  of  the  country.  The  dews  and 
rains  of  heaven  have  begun  to  descend,  and  the 
day  is  coming  when  "  the  wilderness  and  the  soli- 
tary place  shall  be  glad  for  them,  and  the  desert 
shall  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose ;  it  shall 
blossom  abundantly,  and  rejoice  even  with  joy  and 
singing." 

Neighboring  colonists,  in  not  a  few  instances, 
have  been  much  benefited  spiritually,  and  have 
acknowledged  their  indebtedness  to  the  Chris- 

25 


386  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.X. 

tian  conduct  of  Hottentot  servants  as  well  as 
Moravian  missionaries.  The  general  good  be- 
havior of  the  Koi-Koin  (Hottentots)  at  Genaden- 
dal  was  so  marked  as  to  attract  the  attention  of 
Dutch  magistrates,  and  at  length  to  conquer  the 
confidence  and  commendation  of  some  of  them. 
One  official,  Mr.  Rheynefeld,  testified  before  the 
Governor  that  "the  mission  at  Bavian's  Kloof 
had  existed  now  ten  years;  that  about  one  thou- 
sand Hottentots  lived  there,  and  distinguished 
themselves  by  their  obedience  to  the  missionaries 
and  their  orderly  conduct,  so  that  he  never  had 
any  complaints  from  that  quarter.  They  did  not 
want  a  justice  of  the  peace,  though  in  other 
places,  wherever  three  hundred  people  got  to- 
gether, a  justice  had  enough  to  do."  In  1833, 
there  was  a  religious  awakening  among  the  farm- 
ers in  the  neighborhood  of  Genadendal,  who  were 
glad  to  sit  down  beside  the  once-despised  Hotten- 
tots, and  with  them  feed  upon  the  same  spiritual 
food.  English  visitors  have  paid  deserved  com- 
pliments to  the  mission.  Sir  John  Barrow  says : x 
"On  Sundays  they  all  regularly  attend  the  per- 
formance of  divine  service,  and  it  is  astonishing 
how  ambitious  they  are  to  appear  at  church  neat 
and  clean.  Of  about  three  hundred  that  composed 
the  congregation,  about  half  were  dressed  in  coarse 
printed  cottons,  and  the  other  half  in  the  ancient 

1  Travels  into  the  Interior  of  Southern  Africa,  I,  353. 


LKJT.X.]  OUTSIDE  WITNESSES.  387 

sheepskin  dresses;  and  it  appeared  on  inquiry 
that  the  former  were  the  first  who  had  been 
brought  within  the  pale  of  the  church — a  proof 
that  their  external  circumstances,  at  least,  had 
suffered  nothing  from  their  change  of  life."  A 
similar  report  was  afterwards  made  by  Lord  C. 
Somerset  (1817)  and  others.  Even  Colonel  E.  E. 
Napier,1  Mr.  Burchell,2  and  Dr.  Lichtenstein,3  not- 
withstanding their  undisguised  dislike  or  hostility 
to  missionaries  in  general,  speak  favorably  of  this 
Moravian  establishment.  The  reputation  of  Gen- 
adendal  as  an  inviting  spot  spread  far  and  wide 
among  the  natives.  From  time  to  time,  Koi-Koin 
would  come  long  distances  to  enjoy  its  privileges 
—  for  example  (1801),  a  whole  family  from  the 
borders  of  Kafirland,  their  journey  requiring  six 
weeks'  time ;  also  a  company  of  twenty -three  from 
a  remoter  part  of  the  land. 

It  was  in  the  course  of  1823  that,  owing  to  a 
request  from  the  Government,  Hemel-en-Aarde,4  a 

1  Excursions  in  Southern  Africa.    2  vols. 

2  Travels  in  the  Interior  of  Southern  Africa. 

3  Travels  in  Southern  Africa. 

4  "  Sky   and  Earth,"  seventy  miles  east  from  Cape   Town, 
twelve  miles  from  Caledon,  and  not  far  from  the  sea ;  removed 
to  Robben  Island,  1846;  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  English 
Church,  1867.    Mr.  W.  Moister  appears  not  to  be  aware  of  this 
last  arrangement.     He  says :  "  A  Moravian  missionary  has  also 
been  employed  at  Robin  Island  for  many  years,  under  the  aus- 
pices of  Government,  in  ministering  to  the  lepers  and  other  poor 
sufferers   located   there."    Africa:   Past  and  Present.     London, 
1879. 


888  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.X. 

leper  hospital,  became  a  mission  station,  and  much 
faithful  labor  was  performed  there.  A  less  in- 
viting .field  can  hardly  be  imagined  than  that 
refuge  of  wasting  sufferers  and  mere  relics  of 
humanity  —  deformed,  crippled,  and  loathsome 
beyond  expression.  For  simple  garden  opera- 
tions, one  patient  would  supplement  another.  A 
man  who  had  no  hands  might  be  seen  carrying 
on  his  back  another  who  had  lost  both  his  feet, 
but  who  could  drop  seeds  into  the  ground  with 
the  member  which  was  wanting  to  his  fellow- 
sufferer.  The  faith  and  efforts  of  Moravians  in 
behalf  of  these  wretched  inmates  were  blessed. 
"Amongst  the  poor  sufferers  in  that  lazar-house," 
says  one  of  the  Brethren,  on  paying  a  visit, 
"  there  are  many  dear  souls  who  rejoice  in  the 
Lord  their  God,  and  the  assurance  of  a  better 
world,  and,  relying  on  their  Saviour's  merits, 
watch  their  diseased  tabernacles  falling  to  pieces, 
in  the  hope  of  soon  being  with  him  in  glory.  It 
makes  one  shudder  to  visit  the  patients  in  their 
dwellings,  such  pitiable  objects  do  they  present, 
and  so  offensive  is  the  effluvia ;  yet,  when  you 
enter  into  conversation  with  them  on  the  con- 
cerns of  their  souls,  and  find  these  poor  cripples 
full  of  faith  and  joyful  confidence  in  the  Saviour's 
merits,  it  makes  you  feel  ashamed  of  your  fastidi- 
ousness." During  the  first  six  years  of  Super- 
intendent Leitner's  connection  with  the  hospital, 
ninety-four  adults  were  baptized.  The  institu- 


MCT.  x.]  BUSHMEN.  389 

tion  had  a  large  space  of  ground  enclosed  with 
a  high  wall,  and  only  one  entrance,  which  was 
strictly  guarded.  The  leper  who  entered  that 
gate  might  never  return.  The  mistake  has  been 
made  of  supposing  that  the  same  was  also  true 
of  missionaries  in  charge,  and  that  their  entrance 
upon  service  was  a  perpetual  renunciation  of  the 
outside  world.  But  that  is  entirely  inaccurate. 
No  hindrance  existed  to  their  free  egress.  At- 
tempts have  been  made  more  than  once  by  Mo- 
ravian writers  to  correct  this  misapprehension, 
though  without  success.  The  touch  of  romance 
involved  will  probably  keep  the  unfounded  state- 
ment afloat ;  so,  too,  the  reputed  incident  of 
missionaries  selling  themselves  into  slavery  on 
the  West  India  Islands,  as  the  only  way  of  gain- 
ing access  to  Africans  in  bondage  there.  The 
actual  heroism  and  self-denial  of  Moravians  re- 
quire no  fictitious  adjuncts. 

There  is  a  South-African  bird1  which  serves 
as  guide  to  the  natives  for  finding  honey.  So, 
here  and  there,  a  stray  messenger  has  indicated 
even  to  despised  Bushmen  where  that  might  be 
found  which  is  "  sweeter  than  honey  and  the 
honeycomb."  One  of  this  abject  race  gave  her 
reason  for  resorting  to  Genadendal,  thus  :  "I  am 
come  because  I  know  that  Bavian's  Kloof  is  an 


1  Cuculus  indicator,  of  a  light  color,  and  the  size  of  a  chaf- 
finch. 


390  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.X. 

asylum  for  poor,  distressed  sinners ;  such  a  sinner 
I  am.  I  have  lived  long  in  sin,  and  done  much 
evil ;  and  among  the  farmers,  with  whom  I  am 
now  in  service,  I  have  seen  and  heard  nothing 
else;  but  now  I  am  tired  of  the  service  of  sin, 
and  seek  rest  for  my  soul."  The  Bushmen,1  it 
need  hardly  be  said,  are  inferior  in  condition  even 
to  the  Koi-Koin.  Few  races  lower  on  the  human 
scale  can  be  found.  They  are  probably  a  distinct 
aboriginal  race,  though  their  classification  is  not 
yet  clearly  determined.  They  and  the  Hotten- 
tots appear  to  represent  the  only  remnants  of 
the  earliest  inhabitants  of  Africa,  which  have 
been  pushed  forward,  reduced  and  nearly  crushed 
by  the  Bantu  family.  Their  language,  including 
the  clicks,  differs  from  that  of  the  Koi-Koin. 
They  have  the  flat  nose,  concave  visage,  and  keen 
eye;  their  skin  is  a  leathery  yellow,  greatly 
wrinkled  even  in  early  life.  They  belong  to  the 
pigmy  races,  wherever  their  conditions  of  life 
are  unfriendly,  as  in  bondage  to  the  Boers  and 
Bechuanas,  and  in  wilder  and  more  sterile  regions, 
as  on  the  great  Kalihari  Desert.  Their  average 
stature  is  four  feet  and  a  half;  that  of  the  women 
four  feet.  They  are  children  of  desolation  and 
isolation,  the  gypsies  of  the  South,  having  no 
fixed  abode.  Filthy  habits  characterize  them. 


1  In  Dutch,  Boschjesmen,  "  Men  of  the  Bush."    One  vernacu- 
lar designation  of  them  is  San,  the  plural  of  Sab. 


LKCT.  x.]  BUSHMEN.  391 

They  are  skillful  in  using  the'  arrow  and  the  trap  ; 
are  crafty  and  sagacious;  have  no  domestic  ani- 
mals save  a  half-wild  dog.  They  even  possess 
some  artistic  skill.  From  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  to  the  Orange  River,  may  be  seen,  in  caves 
and  on  cliffs,  figures  of  men  and  animals,  sketched 
with  a  firm  hand  in  red,  brown,  white  and  black 
colors  —  sketches  truer  to  nature  than  many 
which  are  to  be  seen  on  Eg}^ptian  monuments. 
When  absent  from  their  caves  for  a  night,  the 
Bushmen  cover  themselves  with  sand,  or  make 
a  shelter  of  branches  and  brushwood  in  a  thicket. 
Not  unfrequently  they  are  compelled  to  feed  on 
ants'  eggs,  locusts,  and  snakes;  and  in  general 
theirs  is  a  condition  of  physical  misery  more 
extreme  than  we  can  easily  conceive.  They  have 
no  civil  organization,  no  chiefs,  but  are  the 
Pariahs  of  Southern  Africa,  the  common  enemy 
of  neighboring  tribes ;  and  only  where  the  Hot- 
tentot, the  Kafir,  and  the  European  cannot  sub- 
sist, are  they  allowed  to  maintain  a  dreary  abode. 
Like  the  Hottentots,  they  have  neither  temple 
nor  altar,  nor  scarcely  any  vestige  of  religion. 
The  Dutch  farmers,  formerly  at  least,  were  accus- 
tomed to  regard  them,  as  some  in  our  country 
have  regarded  Indians,  in  the  light  of  Canaanites, 
to  be  exterminated  when  they  could  not  profit- 
ably be  reduced  to  slavery.  One  Boer  boasted 
that  he  had  taken  part  in  struggles  which  cost 
over  two  thousand  seven  hundred  Bushmen  their 


392  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.X. 

lives ;  and  another,  that  in  six  years  he  had 
caught  and  killed  three  thousand  and  two  hun- 
dred of  them. 

A  century  after  the  Dutch  had  landed,  the 
sj'Stem  of  "commandoes"  began  (1754).  And 
what  is  a  commando  ?  An  armed  raid,  composed 
of  Boers,1  sometimes  seconded  by  troops  of  the 
line,  under  order  from  a  provincial  magistrate  to 
scour  the  country.  The  usual  method  was  to 
come  upon  the  natives  by  night,  or  early  in  the 
morning,  and  slaughter  them  indiscriminately. 
The  chief  inducement  for  the  Boers  to  engage  in 
these  abominable  forays  was  the  prospect  of  cap- 
turing women  and  children  for  their  service.  To 
cite  a  few  instances :  One  commando  (1774), 
under  Van  Wyk,  in  the  course  of  eight  days, 
shot  ninety-six  Bushmen,  the  women  and  chil- 
dren being  captured  and  distributed  as  slaves 
among  the  Boers ;  another,  under  Van  der  Mieroe, 
murdered  one  hundred  and  forty-two  of  the  poor 
creatures ;  yet  another,  after  destroying  the  males, 
took  one  hundred  and  eighteen  women  captive. 
"I  still  shudder,"  says  Thomas  Pringle,2  "when 
I  think  of  one  of  the  first  scenes  of  the  kind 
which  I  was  obliged  to  witness  in  my  youth,  when 
I  commenced  my  burgher  service.  It  was  upon 

1  Boer,  Dutch  farmer  or  peasant,  like   the   German    Bauer, 
though  not,  like  the  English  boor,  conveying  necessarily  the  idea 
of  rudeness. 

2  Residence  in  South  Africa,  78. 


"tot.  x.]  COMMANDOES.  393 

a  commando  under  Carl  Kortz.  We  had  sur- 
prised and  destroyed  a  considerable  kraal  of  Bos- 
jesmen.  When  the  firing  ceased,  five  women 
were  still  found  living.  The  lives  of  these,  after 
a  long  discussion,  it  was  ordered  to  spare,  because 
one  farmer  wanted  a  servant  for  this  purpose, 
and  another  for  that.  The  unfortunate  wretches 
were  ordered  to  march  in  front  of  the  commando ; 
but  it  was  soon  found  that  they  impeded  our 
progress,  not  being  able  to  proceed  fast  enough. 
They  were  therefore  ordered  to  be  shot.  The 
scene  which  ensued  often  haunts  me  up  to  the 
present  hour.  The  helpless  victims,  seeing  what 
was  intended,  sprang  to  us,  and  clung  so  firmly 
to  some  of  the  party  that  it  was  for  some  time 
impossible  to  shoot  them  without  hazarding  the 
lives  of  those  they  held  fast.  Four  of  them  were 
at  length  despatched,  but  the  fifth  could  by  no 
means  be  torn  from  one  of  our  comrades,  whom 
she  had  grasped  in  her  agony;  and  his  entreaties 
to  be  allowed  to  take  the  woman  home  were 
at  last  complied  with.  She  went  with  her  pre- 
server, served  him  long  and  faithfully,  and,  I 
believe,  died  in  the  family.  May  God  forgive 
the  land!" 

Expeditions  of  this  kind  were  sent  out  regu- 
larly every  year,  and  the  numbers  just  given  are 
below  the  average  slaughter.  In  1774,  the  Col- 
onial Government  ordered  that  the  entire  race 
of  Bushmen  not  already  in  servitude  should  be 


394  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.X. 

seized  or  extirpated,  women  and  children  alone 
having  the  doubtful  clemency  shown  them  of 
being  made  slaves. 

When  once  in  the  power  of  the  Dutch  farmers, 
what  treatment  did  these  captured  natives  re- 
ceive ?  Not  unfrequently  the  most  cruel.  Beat- 
ing, and  cutting  with  the  thongs  of  the  rhinoceros- 
hide,  were  among  the  forms  of  punishment.  In 
their  cool  brutality,  masters  would  have  lashes 
applied,  not  by  number,  but  by  time,  while  they 
were  smoking  a  succession  of  pipes;  and  this 
method  of  "flogging  by  pipes"  was  particularly 
popular,  as  in  the  East  India  Colonies  of  the 
Dutch.  If  death  ensued,  no  more  account  was 
made  of  it  than  if  a  dumb  beast  had  died.  Liable 
to  be  shot  down  at  any  time,  like  the  hyena  or 
the  baboon,  obliged  in  their  outlawry  to  feed 
on  vermin  and  roots  of  the  wilderness,  what  con- 
dition of  mind  were  they  in  toward  the  merciless 
intruders  into  their  domain?  Treat  a  man,  Koi- 
Koin  or  Bushman,  like  a  beast,  .and  you  make 
him  one.  Untutored  natives,  originally  contented 
and  peaceably  disposed,  were  converted  into  vin- 
dictive enemies.  Driven  from  their  fields  and 
fountains,  robbed  of  their  flocks  and  herds,  their 
wives  and  children,  what  else  could  be  expected 
than  that  they  should  be  transformed  into  exas- 
perated savages,  ready  for  retaliation  by  plunder 
and  by  the  poisoned  arrow? 

The   difficulty  of  reaching  these   men   of  the 


IJSOT.  x.]  COMMANDOES.  395 

desert  and  of  the  thicket,  otherwise  than  with 
the  rifle,  has  been  greatly  increased  by  the  wrongs 
and  cruelties  of  the  Dutch  period,  and  by  a  feel- 
ing of  contempt  and  hopelessness  in  regard  to 
them  and  to  the  Hottentots  on  the  part  of  many 
English  residents,  especially  in  the  early  times 
of  their  colonial  tenure.  While  the  Moravians 
have  established  no  missionary  stations  exclu- 
sively for  them,  individuals  and  families  have 
been  received  at  the  settlements,  have  been  re- 
claimed from  barbarism;  and,  poisoned  arrows 
thrown  away,  they  may  be  seen,  clothed  and  in 
their  right  inind,  sitting  at  the  Saviour's  feet. 
Nor  is  this  degraded  people  destitute  of  quick 
perception,  and  of  other  mental  capabilities  which 
may  command  respect.  "  Why  is  it,"  said  a  Bush- 
man in  an  address  at  a  missionary  station,  where 
some  colonists  were  present,  "  why  is  it  that  we 
are  persecuted  and  oppressed  by  Christians?  Is 
it  because  we  live  in  desert  lands,  clothe  our- 
selves with  skins,  and  feed  on  locusts  and  wild 
honey  ?  Is  there  anything  morally  better  in  one 
kind  of  raiment  or  in  one  kind  of  food  than 
another?  Was  not  John  the  Baptist  a  Bushman  ? 
Did  he  not  dwell  in  a  wilderness?  Was  he  not 
clothed  with  a  leathern  girdle,  such  as  we  wear? 
And  did  he  not  feed  on  locusts  and  wild  honey  ? 
Was  he  not  a  Bushman  ?  ...  It  is  true,  John  the 
Baptist  was  beheaded ;  but  he  was  not  beheaded 
because  he  was  a  Bushman,  but  because  he  was 


396  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLECT  x. 

a  faithful  preacher;  and  where,  then,  do  the 
Christian  men  find  anything  in  the  precepts  or 
examples  of  their  religion  to  justify  them  for 
robbing  and  shooting  us  because  we  are  Bush- 
men?"1 No  rude  barbarian  is  it  who  can  make 
such  an  appeal. 

Genadendal,  the  oldest  and  still  the  largest- 
missionary  establishment  in  South  Africa,  has 
naturally  been  mentioned  more  often  than  any 
other  in  the  preceding  lecture.  It  is  a  repre- 
sentative station ;  and,  if  no  other  had  been  oc- 
cupied by  the  United  Brethren,  this  might  well 
deserve  all  the  time  we  have  devoted  to  it.  The 
mission  in  the  western  section  of  the  Cape  Colony 
has  other  stations — for  instance,  Mamre,  already 
spoken  of,  and  till  1854  known  as  Groenekloof ; 
Elim,  twenty  miles  from  Cape  Agulhas,  estab- 
lished 1824 ;  Goedverwacht,  with  the  neighboring 
Witte water,  forty  miles  north  of  Mamre  (1859)  ; 
and  Berea,  near  Genadendal,  recently  established 
(1865).  These  places  have  the  advantage  of 
being  well  supplied  with  water,  and,  while  the 
neighboring  lands  are  not  fertile,  yet,  being  irri- 
gated, they  are  made  productive.  At  Genadendal 
is  a  valuable  institution  for  training  native  help- 
ers, established  in  1838.  At  all  these  stations 
there  are  chapels  and  schoolhouses ;  at  two  of 
them,  smiths'  forges,  shops  for  carpenters,  wheel- 
wrights and  for  manufacturing  coarse  cutlery. 

1  Philip's  Researches,  II,  12,  13. 


MCT.X.]  KAFIR   TRIBES.  397 

Mention  has  hitherto  been  made  only  of  the 
western,  the  chief  field  of  Moravian  labor,  that 
among  the  Koi-Koin  and  the  limited  number  of 
Bushmen  mingling  with  them.  But  Kafirs,1  the 
dominant  race  of  South  Africa,  have  also  shared, 
though  for  a  shorter  time  and  with  less  success, 
in  the  efforts  of  these  persevering  missionaries. 
The  Kafirs  are  a  nomadic,  warlike,  predatory  peo- 
ple ;  tall,  well-formed,  with  some  resemblance  to 
Caucasians ;  as  to  color,  dark  brown ;  the  hair 
woolly,  though  they  do  not  belong  to  the  negro 
family.  Their  language,  as  in  all  other  tongues 
south  of  the  equator  (those  of  the  Koi-Koin  and 
Bushmen  excepted),  places  the  qualifying  syllable 
before  the  chief  root,  yet  does  not  dispense  with 
suffixes.  Like  others  of  the  same  Bantu  stock,  it 
is  rich  in  vowel-sounds,  euphonious  and  flowing. 
Unlike  the  two  peoples  we  have  chiefly  considered 
thus  far,  they  have  compact  civil  organizations, 
and,  in  half  a  dozen  or  more  wars  with  the  Eng- 
lish, have  shown  capacity  and  determination. 
They  are  cheerful,  but  irritable ;  inveterate  liars 
and  beggars;  no  less  superstitious  than  neighbors 
who  are  mentally  inferior,  being  in  bondage  to 
witch-doctors  and  rain-makers.  Their  superior 
stamina  has  enabled  them  to  withstand  the  usual 

1  This  is  not  properly  an  ethnographic  term,  but  an  Arabic 
word,  denoting  "  unbeliever,"  with  respect  to  Islam.  The  true 
form,  Kafir,  now  seems  likely  to  supplant  the  older  forms  of 
Caff  re  and  Kaffir. 


398  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.X 

tendency  to  diminution  upon  the  contact  of  a  sav- 
age with  a  civilized  race.1  The  Dutch,  in  their 
days  of  colonial  rule,  learned  to  respect  Kafir 
courage,  though  not  till  after  they  had  made  ex- 
periment in  outrages  similar  to  those  perpetrated 
upon  less  capable  native  tribes. 

In  1818,  the  Moravians  established  Enon  as  an 
advanced  post  for  efforts  among  the  Kafirs.  It  is 
in  the  Valley  of  the  Witterivier,  a  small  tributary 
of  Zondag  (Sunday)  River,  forty-five  miles  north 
of  Mamre,  at  the  base  of  the  Zuurenberg  Moun- 
tains. The  valley  is  ten  miles  in  length,  and  the 
neighboring  hills  are  broken  into  dells  or  kloofs. 
The  region  abounds  in  forests ;  the  fragrant  Afri- 
can yellow-wood,  euphorbias,  parasitical  plants, 
jasmines  and  geraniums,  diversifying  the  scenery. 
In  the  Kafir  war  of  1835,  the  community  were 
obliged  to  flee  from  the  place.  In  later  native 
uprisings,  the  same  has  been  repeated ;  and  yet,  in 
the  war  of  1846-47,  it  was  the  only  missionary 
post  which  escaped  devastation.  In  1828,  labor 
was  begun  at  Shiloh,  about  five  hundred  miles 
east  of  Genadendal,  on  Klipplaat  River,  then  out- 
side the  Cape  Colony,  in  what  is  now  British  Kaf- 
fraria.  This  was  by  request  from  the  Tambookies, 

1  The  Kafirs  despise  Hottentots,  Bushmen,  Malays  and  other 
people  of  color,  on  account  of  their  not  being  circumcised.  On 
this  account  they  regard  them  as  boys,  and  will  not  allow  them 
to  sit  in  their  company,  or  to  eat  with  them.  Lichtenstein's  Trav- 
els in  Southern  Africa,  I,  66. 


iECT.x.1  EASTERN  MISSION.  399 

» 

a  Kafir  tribe,  which  holds  that  neighborhood.  Af- 
terwards, the  stations  Mamre  and  Goshen1  (1850) 
were  opened  on  the  borders  of  Kaffraria.  A  party 
of  predatory  Fetkannas  the  next  year  committed 
murders  and  carried  off  cattle;  which  gave  occa- 
sion for  a  fine  utterance  from  one  of  the  Hottentot 
keepers,  Hendrick  Benkes,  whose  entire  stock, 
valued  at  nine  hundred  dollars,  was  stolen :  "  I 
hope  one  day  to  assist  in  bringing  the  gospel  to 
the  Fetkannas  themselves."  Still  later  (1859), 
we  find  Engotine,  on  the  streamlet  Engoti,  which 
empties  into  the  Ossen  Kraal,  at  no  great  distance 
from  Shiloh. 

A  movement  was  begun  (1839)  in  behalf  of  the 
Fingoes,  a  fugitive  Kafir  tribe,  who  came  within 
the  colony  for  the  sake  of  English  protection 
(1835).  That  station,  called  Clarkson,  formerly 
Koksbosch,  is  in  the  Zitzikamma,  and  belongs  to 
the  Western  Mission.  The  Kafir  races,  robust, 
restless,  unscrupulous,  given  to  rapine  and  blood- 
shed, do  not  present  the  most  promising  field  for 
quiet  Moravian  approaches;  though,  among  the 
Tambookies  especially,  there  has  been  a  fair 
amount  of  success. 

Labor  in  behalf  of  these  tribes  is  not  of  as  long 
standing,  nor  has  it  been  thus  far  as  successful,  as 
among  the  Koi-Koin.  Sir  Benjamin  D' Urban 


1  At  first  called   Sichem  on  Windvogelberg,  not  far  from 
Shiloh. 


400  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.  x. 

• 

says :  "  I  used  the  words  '  irreclaimable  savages ' 
advisedly;  they  convey  my  mature  opinion,  and  I 
am  disposed  neither  to  modify  nor  to  retract  it." 
Alongside  such  a  declaration  we  would  place  the 
testimony  of  an  aged  Kafir  woman,  Anne  Adams: 
"  When  I  hear  the  gospel,  I  feel  something  in  my 
heart  to  which  I  can  give  no  other  name  than 
peace.  When  I  enjoy  the  holy  communion,  I 
would  rather  immediately  depart  out  of  the  world 
that  I  might  be  at  home  with  our  Saviour,  who 
shed  his  blood  and  died  for  me."  We  would 
summon  another  Kafir  woman,  Wilhelmina  Stomp- 
jes,  who  wept  over  the  sins  of  her  people,  and 
who  labored  earnestly  and  successfully  for  the 
enlightenment  and  conversion  of  many  individ- 
uals. A  missionary  not  given  to  exaggeration 
says : '  "  The  strong  and  admirable  features  of  her 
Christian  character,  her  intense  love  for  her  Kafir 
countrymen,  and  her  mastery  of  the  language  of 
the  people,  gave  her  a  great  advantage  over  the 
missionaries,  who  could  only  hold  intercourse 
with  them  by  the  aid  of  an  interpreter,  and  she 
faithfully  used  it  in  all  humility  for  the  further- 
ance of  the  Lord's  work.  With  a  warm  heart  and 
overflowing  lips,  she  would  tell  of  the  love  of  God 
in  Jesus  Christ.  Her  word  had  such  weight  even 
with  the  proud  chiefs  that  they  were  often  swayed 
by  it,  and  did  not  deem  it  beneath  their  dignity  to 

1  Quoted  by  Carlyle :  South-African  Mission  Fields,  123,  124. 


LKCT.  x.]  SPECIAL  TKIALS.  401 

send  special  messengers  to  the  lowly  maiden  in 
the  missionaries'  household."  In  one  instance 
the  missionaries  would  probably  have  been  cut  off 
but  for  her.  A  fierce  Tambookie  chief,  Mapasa, 
with  a  band  of  fifty  armed  men,  came  to  the  set- 
tlement, bent  on  its  destruction.  Pressing  through 
the  group  of  savages,  each  of  whom  held  his  spear 
ready  to  strike  at  a  word  from  the  chief,  she,  with 
undaunted  courage,  reproached  Mapasa  for  appear- 
ing in  such  warlike  fashion,  and  ordered  him  to 
depart.  The  fierce  and  cruel  chieftain,  completely 
overcome  by  her  manner,  instead  of  killing  the 
missionaries  and  the  woman  who  dared  intrude  on 
an  assembly  of  men,  withdrew  peacefully,  and 
apologized  later  for  his  conduct.  Did  Sir  Ben- 
jamin D'Urban  ever  exhibit  more  of  heroism  than 
Wilhelmina,  or  a  more  evident  Christian  character 
than  either  of  these  two  women,  though  they  be- 
longed to  the  race  which  he  was  pleased  to  persist 
in  denominating  " irreclaimable  savages?"  A  later 
Governor,  Sir  Harry  Smith,  uses  very  different  lan- 
guage, declaring  that  the  frontier  would  be  better 
guarded  by  nine  mission-stations  than  by  nine  mil- 
itary posts.  "I  have  been,"  says  he,  "in  many 
fine  churches,  but  my  heart  has  never  been  so 
touched  as  it  was  in  this  humble  temple  of  God  in 
the  wilderness,  in  which  black  people  and  white 
sit  side  by  side  as  brethren  in  Christ." 

Mission   work   in   South   Africa  is  prosecuted 
under  discouraging    liabilities   other  than   those 
26 


402  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.X. 

already  dwelt  upon,  such  as  the  devastation  of 
floods,  the  ravages  of  locusts,  the  failure  of  crops, 
the  plundering  forays  of  hostile  neighbors,  and 
the  demoralizing  influence  of  frequent  wars.  One 
is  reminded,  too,  of  "  wild  beasts  at  Ephesus." 
Missionary  Schmit,  of  Enon,  was  one  day,  with  a 
party  of  Hottentots,  in  pursuit  of  hyenas  which 
had  been  making  depredations  among  their  flocks. 
The  hounds  started  a  leopard,  which  sprang  upon 
a  native  and  overpowered  him.  In  attempting 
to  aid  the  Hottentot,  Mr.  Schmit  drew  the  ani- 
mal's attention  to  himself,  and  received  the  full 
brunt  of  a  furious  attack,  with  no  opportunity 
to  use  his  gun.  The  ferocious  creature  seized 
him  by  the  left  arm,  and  with  his  paws  tore 
the  clothes  from  the  missionary's  breast.  After 
receiving  another  bite  or  two,  he  grasped  the 
animal  with  his  right  hand  by  the  throat,  and, 
being  a  powerful  man,  held  him  for  a  few  min- 
utes till  one  of  the  natives,  hearing  his  cries  in 
the  jungle,  came  to  the  rescue,  and  shot  the 
leopard  through  the  heart.  So  terribly  was  the 
missionary  lacerated,  that  for  weeks  his  life  was 
in  the  greatest  danger. 

By  dint  of  faith  and  quiet,  persistent  toil,  the 
Moravian  Brethren  have  effected  much.  Even 
sixty  or  more  years  ago,  Henry  Marsveld,  one 
of  those  humble  men  who  went  out  in  1792  to 
renew  the  work  at  Genadendal,  could  say  (1818)  : 
"I  have  had  the  favor  to  baptize  four  hundred 


LECT.  X.] 


RESULTS.  403 


and  fifteen  Hottentots.  ...  It  is  now  twenty-five 
years  since  we  began,  in  weakness  and  poverty 
of  spirit,  to  preach  to  the  people  here ;  and  we 
immediately  experienced  that  the  Lord  most 
graciously  owned  and  blessed  our  labors,  opening 
the  hearts  of  the  Hottentots,  so  that  his  sav- 
ing gospel  found  entrance.  Many  of  them  have 
departed  this  life  with  joy,  in  full  reliance  on 
his  merits.  Four  hundred  and  seventy-seven  lie 
in  our  burying-ground.  How  shall  I  rejoice,  when 
I  behold  this  large  number  assembled  around  His 
throne,  to  see  others  coming !  All  is  of  grace 
and  remains  mere  grace."  During  the  same 
period,  upwards  of  fourteen  hundred  Hottentots, 
Kafirs,  and  other  heathen  had  received  the  seal- 
ing ordinance.  In  the  community  at  Genadendal, 
that  radiating  center,  there  are  now  (1882)  be- 
tween four  and  five  thousand  persons;  while  in 
the  whole  Western  Province  there  are,  at  seven 
stations  and  out-stations,  twenty  European  and 
two  native  missionaries,  more  than  fifty  native 
helpers,  and  over  two  thousand  (2,157)  commu- 
nicants. These,  it  will  be  kept  in  mind,  once 
belonged  to  Sir  Benjamin  D'Urban's  "irreclaim- 
able savages."  In  the  Eastern  Province  are  fiVe 
hundred  and  ninety-two  communicants ;  in  the 
two  Provinces,  Eastern  and  Western,  are  found 
about  twenty-five  schools  and  twenty-five  hun- 
dred scholars,  and  at  fourteen  different  stations 
more  than  eleven  thousand  (11,704)  souls,  of 


404  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.  x. 

whom  2,749  are  communicant  members,  under 
the  immediate  pastoral  direction  of  the  United 
Brethren. 

The  Moravian  Brethren  themselves  engage  in 
mechanical  or  farming  occupations,  the  profits 
of  which  are  always  carried  to  the  account  of 
the  mission.  Their  example  and  teaching  have 
a  most  persuasive  influence ;  so  that  natives, 
proverbial  for  idleness  and  inefficiency,  like  the 
Koi-Koin,  or  for  contempt  of  labor,  like  the  Kafirs, 
come  to  engage  industriously  in  agriculture  and 
various  handicrafts.  The  chief  monument  of 
Hottentot  skill  is  a  bridge,  one  hundred  and 
eighty  feet  long,  over  the  Sonderend,  supported 
by  five  massive  piers  and  capable  of  sustaining 
loaded  wagons.  It  is  entirely  the  work  of  natives. 
When  the  Sonderend  in  one  instance  was  at  its 
highest,  a  farmer  who  had  just  passed  the  bridge 
met  a  Hottentot  standing  by.  He  began,  as 
usual,  to  rail  at  the  poor  man,  and  at  the  laziness 
of  the  Hottentots  of  Genadendal.  The  Hottentot, 
pointing  to  the  bridge,  replied :  "  Baas,  I  do  not 
choose  to  answer;  let  that  bridge  speak  for  us. 
If  baas  had  built  it  for  me,  and  I  could  without 
trouble  walk  and  ride  over  it,  I  should  not  ven- 
ture to  complain  of  baas's  laziness;  for  I  should 
think  that  it  required  more  diligence  and  labor 
to  build  a  bridge  than  to  ride  over  it."  The 
farmer  was  mute. 

This  part  of  the  missionary  world,  like  every 


LBOT.X.]  HOSTILE  CRITICS.  405 

other,  has  had  its  occasional  critics  —  men  igno- 
rant apparently  of  the  need,  the  nature  and  the 
power  of  Christianity ;  men  whose  mask  of  philan- 
thropy is  too  thin  to  hide  their  indifference  or 
hostility  to  revealed  religion.  Like  the  Boer 
at  the  bridge,  they  have  been  quite  ready  to  avail 
themselves  of  conveniences  which  missionary  toil 
and  native  civilization  supply,  and  then  repay 
by  criticism  and  misrepresentation,  if  not  cal- 
umny. More  largely  than  any  other  denomina- 
tion, the  Moravians  escape  such  detraction,  but 
not  wholly.  Three  quarters  of  a  century  have 
passed  since  Dr.  Lichtenstein,  afterwards  Pro- 
fessor of  Natural  History  in  the  University  of 
Berlin,  having  been  in  the  Dutch  service  at  the 
Cape,  was  retained  apparently  as  an  apologist 
and  eulogist  of  the  old  order  of  things.  So  invet- 
erate is  his  prejudice  that,  upon  only  the  most 
superficial  acquaintance,  he  speaks  thus  of  native 
converts:  "They  could  sing  and  pray,  and  be 
heartily  penitent  for  their  sins,  and  talk  of  the 
Lamb  of  the  Atonement,  but  none  were  really 
better  for  all  this  specious  appearance." '  On  the 
most  celebrated  of  early  Christian  laborers  in 
South  Africa  he  pronounces  judgment :  "  It  ap- 
pears to  me  that  Vanderkemp  is  of  little  value 
as  a  missionary ; " 2  and  the  Professor  volunteers 
a  brief  sketch:  "When  the  Cape  was  taken  by 

1  Travels,  I,  236.  «  Ibid,  239. 


406  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LBCT.JC. 

the  English,  he  resolved,  though  then  sixty  years 
of  age,  to  go  out  as  a  missionary  to  the  Caffirs; 
and,  being  ordained  at  Oxford,  he  came  here  in 
1797.  After  two  years  spent  among  these  people, 
in  which  he  says  himself  he  has  not  accomplished 
much  toward  the  spread  of  Christianity,  the  war 
broke  out.  He  came  for  a  while  to  Cape  Town, 
but,  at  his  return  to  the  Caffirs,  was  not  favorably 
received,  and  was  obliged  again  to  quit  their 
territories."  The  value  of  Lichtenstein's  opinion 
is  to  be  measured  by  the  accuracy  of  his  state- 
ments. In  the  passage  just  quoted,  which  does 
not  occupy  seven  lines  of  a  quarto  edition,  we 
have  five  mistakes.  Dr.  Vanderkemp  was  not 
more  than  fifty  years  of  age  when  he  offered 
himself  to  go  out  as  missionary ;  he  was  not 
ordained  at  Oxford;  he  did  not  visit  Cape  Town 
after  his  return  from  Kafirland  ;  he  was  not  un- 
favorably received  on  his  second  visit  to  the 
Kafirs,  nor  was  he  obliged  to  quit  their  terri- 
tories.1 

Of  a  later  period  is  Lieutenant-Colonel  Napier, 
who  makes  his  flings  at  missionaries  as  "a  set 
of  needy  and  ignorant  adventurers,"  "miserable 
adventurers,"  "idle  vagabonds  or  senseless  fanat- 
ics." His  estimate  of  the  natives  is  indicated  by 
an  approving  quotation  from  Gibbon,  who  "  some- 
where remarks  that  the  Hottentots  of  old  ap- 

1  Philip's  Researches,  I,  95,  note. 


I.EOT.X.]  HOSTILE  CKITICS.  407 

peared  to  form  the  connecting  link  between  the 
human  species  and  the  brute  creation."  But 
the  Colonel  kindly  favors  us  with  his  theory  of 
gospel  promulgation  :  "  If  we  must,  nolens  volens, 
cram  religion  down  the  throats  of  savages  before 
civilization  has  rendered  them  capable  of  compre- 
hending its  purpose,  at  least  let  the  attempt 
be  made  by  persons  competent,  from  a  clerical 
education,  for  such  an  undertaking."1  We  are 
laid  under  obligations  more  recent  and  hardly 
less  weighty  by  Mr.  Charles  Hamilton,2  who 
appears  to  be  an  admirer  of  Bishop  Colenso.  His 
contempt  vents  itself  on  the  missionary  in  terms 
no  less  guarded  and  choice  than  these :  "  He 
knows  nothing  whatever,  and  is  incapable  of 
knowing  anything,  of  human  nature,  whether 
white  or  black.  ...  If  the  missionary  is  of  no 
service  to  his  countrymen,  he  is  of  still  less  to  the 
Kaffir.  ...  I  believe  a  far  greater  amount  of 
harm  than  good  arises  from  the  unfortunate 
prejudices  and  ignorance  that  so  often  accompany 
missionary  labors.  ...  I  believe  it  to  be  so  be- 
cause the  men  whom  I  saw  could  have  had  no 
sort  of  moral  or  educational  fitness  for  the  work 
they  had  undertaken."  As  to  just  what  would 
constitute  moral  fitness  for  evangelistic  labor,  we 
are  left  in  the  dark;  but  Mr.  Hamilton  supplies 

1  Excursions  in  Southern  Africa,  I,  x,  16G-173 ;  II,  183. 

2  Sketches  of  Life  and  Sport  in  Southeastern  Africa,  90,  91,  150. 
London,  1870 


408  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.X. 

a  clue  to  his  own  ethical  standard.  "  My  rule," 
he  remarks,  "at  that  time,  was  one  which  much 
observation  and  travel,  with  some  sacrifice  of 
early  opinion  to  modern  conveniences,  has  modi- 
fied, that  no  white  man  ought  to  starve  when 
a  black  man  can  supply  his  wants."1  The  inci- 
dent illustrating  his  code  of  morals,  elaborated  in 
travels  and  observation  so  extensive,  is  one  which 
he  gives  with  evident  satisfaction  at  his  own 
smartness  —  his  securing  and  appropriating  a  fowl 
belonging  to  a  native.  It  is  not  intimated  that 
any  remuneration  was  made.  The  circumstance 
that  the  South-African  had  a  skin  not  colored  like 
his  own,  and  was  withal  a  woman,  changed  the 
character  of  the  act  entirely,  making  it  not  only 
right,  but  manly  and  plucky  withal. 

What,  now,  have  the  apostles  of  civilization  sim- 
ple and  pure  ever  done,  or  what  are  they  likely 
to  do,  for  savage  races  ?  Where  are  the  polished 
philanthropists  who,  in  their  contemptuous  pre- 
judice, repudiating  evangelical  missions,  stand  all 
ready,  with  plow  and  printing-press,  to  start  for 
the  dark  places  of  the  earth  which  are  so  full 
of  the  habitations  of  cruelty?  Let  their  names 
be  handed  in.  If  any  men  holding  to  this  mis- 
taken idea,  that  civilization  must  precede  Chris- 
tianity, are  prepared  to  put  the  theory  to  the 
test,  they  are  men  of  Christian  principle  and 

1  Sketches  of  Life  and  Sport  in  Southeastern  Africa,  116. 


LSCT.X.]  MERE  CIVILIZATION.  409 

devotion.  The  Dark  Continent  is  not  without 
an  experiment  of  that  kind.  Eighty  years  ago, 
the  English  Methodists,  under  the  leadership  of 
Dr.  Coke,  entertained  a  scheme  for  introducing 
civilization  among  the  Foulahs  of  Western  Africa. 
A  number  of  well-disposed  artisans  of  various 
descriptions  were  engaged  to  go  out  under  the 
idea  that,  after  some  progress  had  been  made  in 
civilization,  missionaries  should  be  sent  to  preach 
the  gospel.  William  Wilberforce  and  some  other 
leading  men  of  the  day  lent  their  patronage, 
and  great  expectations  were  awakened ;  but  the 
scheme  proved  a  complete  failure.  When  the 
agents  reached  Sierra  Leone,  their  courage  failed. 
They  had  not  strength  of  motive  sufficient  to 
carry  them  out  among  the  savages.1  The  con- 
straining power  of  love  for  the  souls  of  perish- 
ing heathen  men  is  required  to  establish  even 
philanthropic  men  among  a  barbarous  people ; 
and  nothing  will  so  soon  start  such  a  people  on 
the  high  road  of  social  and  material  improvement 
as  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

In  South  Africa,  civilization  had  the  field,  for 
more  than  a  hundred  years,  all  to  itself;  and 
what  did  it  achieve?2  It  robbed  the  natives  of 

1  Evidence  on  the  Aborigines,  1837,  124. 

2  Even  under  the  improved  administration  of  later  years,  Gaika 
could  not  help  saying,  notwithstanding  his  obligations  to  the  Col- 
onial Government,  "  When  I  look  at  the  large  extent  of  fine  coun- 
try that  has  been  taken  from  me,  I  am  compelled  to  say  that, 
though  protected,  I  am  rather  oppressed  by  my  protection." 


410  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LBCT.X. 

their  lands ;  it  reduced  them  to  virtual  or  actual 
slavery;  it  debauched  them  with  ardent  spirits; 
it  formed  illicit  connections,  by  which  both  Eu- 
ropeans and  natives  are  degraded;  in  the  spirit 
of  a  Cortez  and  Pizarro,  it  has  boldly  declared 
that  savage  Kafirs  should  be  made  to  sink  before 
industrious  men  of  a  superior  race.1  When  hard- 
working United  Brethren,  after  twenty  years  of 
toil,  had  created  a  little  paradise  of  comparative 
civilization  at  Shiloh,  Europeans,  chiefly  English- 
men, importuned  the  Governor  to  send  the  Mo- 
ravians away  into  the  heart  of  the  Kafir  country, 
and  to  hand  over  Shiloh,  with  its  fruitful  fields, 
beautiful  watercourses,  and  neat  dwellings,  to 
them.2  Of  such  unutterable  meanness  have  civ- 
ilized men  in  South  Africa  been  capable.  But 
Sir  Harry  Smith,  to  whom  that  application  was 
made,  was  not  a  man  to  countenance  barefaced 
robbery.  Other  Colonial  Governors,  as  Sir  Pere- 
grine Maitland,  Sir  Theophilus  Shepstone,  and  Sir 
Bartle  Frere,  have  spoken  in  highest  terms  of 
missionaries  and  the  results  of  their  labors,  and 
have  lent  important  aid,  personal  and  govern- 
mental. Yes,  Christianity  came  at  length;  and, 
in  half  the  time  that  mere  civilized  men  had  been 
doing  little  besides  selfishly  consulting  their  own 
interests,  and  making  themselves  a  scourge  to  na- 


Freeman's  Tour  in  South  Africa,  212. 
History  of  Shiloh,  26. 


LECT.X.I  PATIENT   WAITING.  411 

live  tribes,  it  has  accomplished  a  noble  work.  In- 
cluding the  results  of  all  Protestant  missions  in 
South  Africa,  there  are  now  one  hundred  and 
eighty  thousand  adherents,  of  whom  thirty-five 
thousand  are  communicants. 

But  the  end  is  not  yet,  nor  is  it  near.  Years  of 
toil,  faith  and  prayer  must  pass  before  the  work 
will  be  finished.  "Long  patience"  is  a  quality 
which  the  United  Brethren  have  had  occasion  to 
cultivate  on  every  foreign  field  where  they  have 
been,  and  here  no  less  than  elsewhere.  At  this 
southern  extremity  of  the  continent,  there  are 
many  plants  having  spines  and  hooks.  One  of 
them  is  a  well-known  bush  with  recurving  thorns, 
which  make  sad  havoc  of  the  clothes,  if  not  of  the 
flesh,  whenever  any  one  comes  in  contact  with  it, 
the  Acacia  detinens,  and  called  by  the  Dutch 
Waclit-e en-be etje,  "  Wait-a-bit."  No  man  can  have 
much  experience  in  evangelistic  movements  among 
any  native  race  there,  without  finding  himself  of- 
ten admonished,  Wait  a  while.  Early  Portuguese 
explorers  set  up  stone  crosses,  but  not  a  soul  was 
the  better  for  that  symbol.  Christ  and  him  cruci- 
fied have  at  last  been  preached,  and  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  continent  is  begun.  Bartholemew 
Diaz,  the  discoverer,  named  the  southern  point 
Cabo  Tormentoso;  King  John  II,  of  Portugal, 
changed  the  name  to  Cabo  de  buon  Esperanza. 
Morally,  too,  the  Cape  of  Storms  has  become  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope. 


LECTURE  XI. 

MISSION  TO  AUSTUALIA. 


MISSION  TO  AUSTRALIA. 


WE  were  last  in  South  Africa.  The  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  six  thousand  miles  from  Liverpool,  is 
midway  to  Australia,  while  Australia  lies  midway 
between  that  Cape  and  Cape  Horn.  If  we  make 
the  coast  circuit  of  this  rounded  mass,  formerly 
called  New  Holland,  we  shall  sail  a  distance  equal 
to  one  third  of  the  circumference  of  our  globe; 
we  shall  sail  round  an  area  equal  to  the  United 
States  exclusive  of  Alaska,  nearly  equal  to  Europe, 
and  ten  times  the  size  of  Borneo,  the  largest  island 
in  the  world.  We  shall  find  but  few  gulfs,  and 
very  few  rivers ;  even  its  largest  stream,  the 
Murray  River,  although  running  two  thousand 
miles,  and  with  its  affluents  draining  a  basin 
equal  to  the  whole  of  France,  yet  hardly  connects 
with  the  sea.  Most  of  the  streams  resolve  them- 
selves, during  the  dry  season,  into  a  series  of  pools, 
marshes,  or  dry  beds.  So,  too,  with  many  of  the 
lakes,  some  of  which  become  brackish.  Of  all  the 
great  divisions '  of  the  earth,  Australia  is  the  most 
imperfectly  watered,  and  the  most  scantily  fur- 

1  The  extreme  length  is  2,500  miles  east  and  west ;  the  great- 
est width,  1,960  miles. 

(415) 


416  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.XI. 

nished  with  animal  life.  On  the  southern  coast, 
there  is  a  reach  of  more  than  five  hundred  miles, 
along  which  not  one  drop  of  water  finds  its  way 
to  the  sea.  A  coastwise  mountain-range  of  very 
moderate  height  confronts  the  Indian  Ocean  on 
the  west,  and  a  more  elevated  range  —  the  highest 
peak  of  which,  however,  does  not  exceed  seven 
thousand  feet  —  faces  the  Pacific  on  the  east. 
No  active  volcano  has  been  discovered.  The 
interior  seems  to  be  a  vast  concave  plain,  sparse- 
ly supplied  with  trees,  extremely  dry  and  hot. 
Though  somewhat  less  than  half  the  area  lies 
within  the  tropics,  it  was  supposed,  like  Central 
Africa  formerly,  to  be  a  vast  desert,  till  later 
explorations  corrected  the  mistake.  Rains,  which 
come  irregularly,  fall,  for  the  most  part,  suddenly; 
some  of  the  rivers  rising  at  once  fifty  or  more 
feet,  but  the  water  is  soon  absorbed. 

Australia  must  be  regarded  as  the  most  peculiar 
of  the  six  continents.  Its  remarkable  vegetation 
is  quite  its  own  ;  far  the  greater  part  of  the  plants 
are  found  nowhere  else,  while  not  a  few  of  those 
most  frequent  in  other  countries  are  entirely 
wanting.1  The  fern-brake  is  the  only  one  com- 
mon to  this  continent  and  to  Europe.  Scarcely 
an  edible  fruit  or  vegetable  that  is  indigenous 
can  be  found,  except  to  the  north ;  nor  is  there 
a  single  native  plant  suited  to  agriculture.  Noc- 

1  Hooker:  Flora  of  Australia,  xxvii. 


LBCT.  xi.]  FLORA.  417 

turnal  plants  are  more  numerous  than  in  any 
other  part  of  the  world;  most  of  the  trees  are 
evergreens,  and  the  timber  is  of  greater  specific 
gravity  than  water.  The  tulip,  lily  and  honey- 
suckle, for  instance,  are  trees  of  no  inconsiderable 
size.  Few  plants  have  any  perfume.  Foliage, 
of  which  there  is  great  poverty,  is  leathery,  dull 
and  sombre,  and  the  same  hues  remain  without 
change  from  season  to  season.  Of  the  Acacia, 
some  species  are  devoid  of  leaves,  and  have  only 
long,  jointed  branchlets.  For  the  most  part, 
leaves  are  peculiarly  attenuated,  and  turn  edge- 
wise toward  the  light,  so  that  trees  furnish  almost 
no  shade.  The  statement  sometimes  made  that 
the  leaves  of  the  trees  are  wood,  and  their  wood 
iron,  is  not  inappropriate  as  regards  many  of 
them.1  Trees  of  the  myrtle  family  (Eucalypti) 
abound ;  and,  of  that  family,  the  gum-tree  is  the 
highest  in  the  world,  attaining  more  than  two 
hundred  feet,2  the  stem,  like  a  column,  destitute 
half  the  way  of  all  limbs.  One  species  annually 
shed  their  bark  instead  of  their  leaves.  There  is 
a  nettle-tree  so  deadly  as  to  paralyze  the  traveler's 
horse.3 

1  Wilkes:  Exploring  Expedition,  II,  166 

z  "  Iti  Victoria  and  Gippsland  glens,  the  gaunt  Eucalypti  hide 
their  nakedness  in  their  crowded  proximity ;  they  tower  to 
heights  of  over  four  hundred  feet,  and  challenge  California  in 
their  gigantic  length  of  stem."  Ranken:  Dominion  of  Australia, 
128. 

3  Ranken :  Dominion  of  Australia,  43. 

27 


MOKAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LBCT.XI. 

The  forms  of  animal  life  are  no  less  peculiar. 
There  are  birds  that  can  sustain  life  without 
water.  There  is  a  white  falcon ;  while  a'  black 
swan  gives  the  lie  to  an  old  Roman  proverb.1 
This  is  the  home  of  the  Emu,  an  enormous  bird 
without  wings;  also  the  home  of  the  harp-bird. 
There  is  one  kind  of  bird  that  constructs  tu- 
muli, sometimes  five  feet  in  height  and  thirty 
in  length,  built  with  the  feet,  which  are  large 
and  have  a  peculiar  prehensile  power.  These 
mounds  are  for  the  eggs,  which,  being  placed  in 
layers,  are  hatched  by  heat  generated  in  part 
from  decomposition.2  The  water-mole  (Platy- 
pus), a  creature  covered  with  fur,  yet  having 
four  webbed  feet  and  the  bill  of  a  duck,  is  a 
great  anomaly.  The  most  numerous  quadrupeds 
are  such  as  we  find  least  frequently  anywhere 
else.  There  are  no  monkeys,  no  beasts  of  prey, 
and  only  one  native  animal,  the  dingo  (Austra- 
lian dog),  that  has  ever  been  domesticated  by 
the  natives.  Of  the  mammals,  more  than  three 
fourths  belong  to  the  low  marsupial  type,3  of 
which  there  is  but  a  single  kind,  our  opossum, 
in  any  other  country.  The  female  has  a  "soft, 
warm,  well-lined,  portable  nursery  pocket,"  in 
which  the  young,  comparatively  immature  at  their 

1  Nigro  simillima  cygno. 

2  Stokes :  Discoveries  in  Australia,  I,  395. 

3  All  but  thirty  out  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-one  species- 
The  remainder  are  bats,  rodents,  etc. 


MCT.XI.]  THE  FAUNA.  419 

birth,  are  quartered.  Of  these  creatures,  one 
kind  is  smaller  than  a  mouse;  another,  the  kan- 
garoo, moves  only  with  a  jump  from  six  to  ten 
feet  high,  and  a  distance  of  fifteen  to  thirty  feet. 
The  entire  absence  of  large  animals  and  of  ungu- 
late animals,  which  are  essential  to  higher  civiliza- 
tion, was  a  noticeable  feature  before  occupation 
by  European  colonists. 

Not  only  was  Australia  the  last  to  be  intro- 
duced into  the  family  of  continents,  but  develop- 
ment would  seem  to  have  been  prematurely  ar- 
rested, as  if  it  were  an  unfinished  quarter  of  the 
world  and  behindhand.  Its  forms  of  animal  and 
vegetable  life  are  like  certain  fossil  remains  of 
more  advanced  regions.1  Yet  Australia  has  great 
mineral  treasures  —  copper,  tin  and  lead,  silver, 
gold,  and,  more  valuable  than  the  gold-diggings, 
extensive  coal-fields,  some  mines  a  thousand  feet 
deep,  and  sufficient  to  supply  the  whole  southern 
hemisphere.2 

Politically,  this  new  continent  belongs  to  Great 
Britain.  It  is  now  two  hundred  years  since  the 


1  Dort  die  Natur  in  der   Wiege,  der  Mensch  kaum  vom  Thicre 

unterscheiden Neu-IIolland  ist  ein   Greis,  nicht  ein  Kind,  ex 

fungi  nicht  zu  athmen  und  zu  leben  an,  es  hat  vielmehr  gelebt   und 
yewirkt,  und  neiyt  sich  nun  zum   Grabe.     Unger :  Neu-Holland,  s. 
3,24. 

2  The  yield  from  the  latter  has  a  value  of  five  millions  of  dol- 
lars annually.    In  the  northern  mountains,  iron  is  BO  abundant  aa 
violently  to  affect  the  magnetic  needle. 


4fO  MORAVIAN    MISSIONS.  [LKCT.XI. 

English  first  made  their  appearance  there  (1688) ; 
yet  it  was  not  till  a  century  later  (1769-1777) 
that  the  celebrated  Captain  Cook  first  gave  to 
his  countrymen  any  reliable  information  regard- 
ing a  portion  of  its  coast  and  people.  Three 
other  nations,  the  Portuguese,  the  Dutch  and  the 
French,  competed  for  possession.  The  earliest 
attempt  at  formal  occupancy  was  the  founding 
of,  a  penal  settlement  in  1788,1  known  as  Botany 
Bay,  although  the  settlement  was  never  there, 
but  at  Sydney,  of  which  it  is  a  swampy  suburb 
several  miles  distant.  At  the  present  time,  in- 
cluding Tasmania,  there  are  six  colonies  under 
a  constitutional  government;  composing  the  most 
important  group  of  British  colonial  possessions,, 
with  a  Governor,  Council,  and  Legislature.  Im- 
migrant colonists,  chiefly  from  Great  Britain,  are 
found  only  on  the  coasts,  except  in  the  south- 
eastern regions  of  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales.2 
This  youngest  of  the  continents,  remaining  prac- 
tically unknown  to  Europe  for  a  century  after 


1  The  last  convict-ship  was  sent  out  in  1840. 

2  "  About  forty  years  from  the  first  landing  of  the  colonists, 
the  sheep-stock  numbered  ninety  thousand  head.    There  were, 
recently  imported  and  increased,  a  flock  of  some  three  hundred 
merino  sheep.     This  small  flock  has  since  increased  and  multi- 
plied, outnumbered  and  swallowed  all  other  breeds,  and  spread 
over  the  whole  Australian   islands,  to   the  number  of  nearly 
seventy  millions.    They  have  become  pioneers  of  civilization, 
the  absolute   masters  of  the  forest,  and  the  foundation  of  an 
empire."    Ilanken  :  Dominion  of  Australia,  68. 


LECT.  xi.]  ABORIGINES.  421 

Columbus's  great  discovery,  even  then  continued 
for  over  two  centuries  with  no  internal  advance. 
Germs  of  improvement  were  entirely  wanting  till 
an  enterprising  little  island  in  the  opposite  hemi- 
sphere established  a  maritime  connection,  and  in- 
troduced the  element  and  impulse  required  for 
growth.  During  the  last  thirty  years,  exploration 
of  the  interior,  as  in  Central  Africa,  has  been 
pushed  with  vigor,  though  at  the  cost  of  valuable 
lives ;  but  now  a  telegraph  passes  through  the 
heart  of  the  continent,  which  is  two  thousand 
miles  wide ;  and,  since  the  discovery  of  gold, 
growth  has  been  almost  unparalleled.  Within 
the  memory  of  men  still  living,  and  not  the 
oldest  either,  the  great  harbor  of  Port  Phillip 
was  unknown ;  now  the  city  of  Melbourne,  the 
capital  of  Victoria  and  chief  emporium  of  Aus- 
tralia, and  where  till  within  less  than  fifty  years 
the  foot  of  white  man  never  trod,  has  a  popula- 
tion of  two  hundred  thousand  souls ;  has  a  large 
public  library ;  has  a  university,  and  so  has  Syd- 
ney, of  which  the  degrees  entitle  to  the  same 
rank  as  those  of  any  university  in  the  United 
Kingdom. 

Like  country,  like  people.  While  in  natural 
history  Australia  is  characterized  by  the  least  de- 
veloped forms,  man  seems  also  to  be  least  removed 
from  the  brute.  The  aborigines  resemble,  yet  dif- 
fer from,  the  Malays  and  from  African  negroes ; 
have  a  skin  less  dark — indeed,  dusky  or  chocolate- 


422  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLBCT.M 

color,  rather  than  black;  the  forehead  higher; 
the  nose  less  depressed ;  the  lips  thick,  but  not 
strikingly  tumescent ;  mouth  wide  and  unsightly; 
eyes  large,  sunken  and  keen ;  hair  somewhat  mat- 
ted, not  woolly,  but  long  and  silky,  more  so  even 
than  the  Caucasian  family;  a  supply  of  beard 
and  whiskers ;  limbs  long  and  slender ;  the  heel 
straight ;  the  stature  about  the  same  as  that  of  an 
average  European.  In  the  southwest  of  the  con- 
tinent, they  are  meagre,  and  have  the  appearance 
of  starvelings;  to  the  north  and  east,  their  physique 
is  more  robust.  The  painting  of  the  body  with 
black,  yellow  and  white  is  universal,  white  being 
the  color  of  mourning;  while  the  removal  of  one 
or  more  of  the  teeth,  though  sound,  and  the  am- 
putation of  finger-joints,  are  common.  Dampier, 
an  enterprising  navigator  and  buccaneer,  and  the 
first  to  give  (1688-1699)  any  valuable  informa- 
tion in  regard  to  Australia,  says :  "  The  inhabitants 
of  this  country  are  the  miserablest  people  in  the 
world."  Captain  Cook  describes  them  as  not  liv- 
ing "in  societies,  but  like  other  animals,  .  .  .  hav- 
ing the  worst  features  and  most  unpleasant  looks 
of  any  people  I  ever  saw." 

The  Australians  have,  for  the  most  part,  no 
fixed  habitations,  their  houses,  if  we  may  call  them 
such,  being  only  temporary  coverings  of  bark  or 
leaves,  requiring  but  an  hour  for  construction. 
When  the  night  is  cold,  they  make  good  their 
total  want  of  clothing  by  burying  themselves  in 


LWT.XIO  ABOKIGINES.  423 

the  sand.  They  never  cultivate  the  soil;  as  a 
general  thing,  are  unacquainted  with  boats  of  any 
description ;  they  use  hatchets  of  stone,  and  jave- 
lins tipped  with  bone ;  and  their  ornaments,  im- 
plements and  weapons  can  all  be  carried  in  the 
family  store-bag.  The  bow  and  arrow  are  un- 
known to  them,  their  few  weapons  being  project- 
iles. They  employ  the  wimmera,  or  throwing-stick, 
a  contrivance  for  accelerating  the  motion  of  a 
lance ;  also  the  boomerang,  which  is  wielded  with 
great  skill.1  The  Australian  shows  agility  as  well 
as  dexterity.  Depending  upon  the  chase  and  upon 
fishes,2  wild  honey,  lizards,  reptiles,  caterpillars, 
worms  and  roots  for  food,  their  condition  is  as  low 
as  can  well  be  conceived,  even  below  that  of  the 
South-African  Bushmen.3  Children,  when  trouble- 
some, are  killed.  Woman  is  regarded  as  an  arti- 
cle of  property;  is  treated  with  the  greatest  indig- 
nity and  cruelty.  In  no  other  part  of  tho  world  is 

1  Wilkinson  states  that  "  a  representation  of  this  instrument 
has  been  found  in  the  tombs  of  Thebes,  in  Upper  Egypt.     It  is 
likewise  distinctly  delineated  in  one  of  the  fresco  paintings  illus- 
trating the  manners  and  customs  of  the  early  Egyptians,  now  in 
the  British  Museum,  where  a  figure  is  represented  in  the  act  of 
flinging  the  boomerang,  or  'throw-stick,'  at  a  number  of  ducks 
as  they  are  escaping  from  a  tuft  of  papyrus."    Bennet :  Gather- 
ings of  a  Naturalist  in  Australia,  289. 

2  They  have  no  fish-hooks  of  their  own  making. 

3  Les  phis  bruits  des  hommes,  les  derniers  sortis  des  mains  de  la  na- 
ture; sans   religion,  sans   his,  sans   arts,   vivans   mis&rablement  par 
couples  totalement  Grangers  a  V&ai  social,  les  Australasiens  n'ont  pas 
la  moindre  id&  dc  leur  nudite.    M.  Bory  de  St.  Vincent. 


424  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.  xi. 

her  condition  worse.  Wife-stealing  prevails;  po- 
lygamy and  infanticide  exist.1  Rev.  George  Tap- 
lin  says :  "  The  natives  told  me  that,  some  twenty 
years  before  I  came  to  Point  Macleay,  they  first 
saw  white  men  on  horseback,  and  thought  the 
horses  were  their  visitors'  mothers,  because  they 
carried  them  on  their  backs!  I  have  also  heard 
that  another  tribe  regarded  the  first  pack-bullocks 
they  saw  as  the  white  fellows'  wives,  because  they 
carried  the  luggage."2  That  the  son-in-law  should 
never  mention  the  name  of  his  mother-in-law,  nor 
the  daughter-in-law  the  name  of  her-father-in-law, 
is  a  singular  yet  imperative  custom. 

The  language  of  Australia,  which  is  broken  into 
many  dialects,  possesses  also  certain  characteristics 
common,  so  far  as  known,  throughout  the  conti- 
nent. It  has  a  predominance  of  nasal  sounds,  and 
an  absence  of  sibilant  sounds;  each  word  begin- 
ning with  a  consonant,  and  ending  with  a  vowel  or 
semivowel.  It  is  aggregative.  No  prefixes  are 
used,  but  only  suffixes,  and  these  to  an  almost  in- 
definite extent.  There  is  a  dual  as  well  as  plural. 
In  declension,  the  language  is  nearly  twice  as  rich 
as  the  Latin,  and  has  various  conjugations,  reflec- 


1  "  Le  rite  de  la  circoncision  de"couvret  aux  iles  Fidji,  Tonga  et  Ta- 
hiti, la  perforation  de  I'oreille  pour  y  passer  un  os,  I'anthropophagie, 
I'infanticide  pratique'  de  preference  chez  les  filles,  appartiennent  aux 
deux  peuples."    Topinard  :  Les  Races  Indigenes  de  I'Australie,  1 13, 
114. 

2  The  Narrinyeri,  68. 


LECT.XL]  THEIR   LANGUAGES.  425 

tive,  reciprocal,  determinative,  continuative,  with 
moods  and  tenses  not  less  full  than  the  Greek. 
Indeed,  it  is  prolific  in  forms,  and  capable  of  indi- 
cating numerous  gradations  and  even  precision  of 
thought.  While  the  Polynesian  tongues  are  sim- 
ple in  their  structure,  this  is  complex ;  it  lacks, 
however,  the  substantive  verb  as  well  as  auxil- 
iaries. Like  Indian  tribes  of  America,  the  people 
have  but  slight  power  of  computation  or  of  gen- 
eralization, and  hence  employ  no  generic  term  for 
tree,  bird  or  fish,  and  the  like.  Invention  seems 
utterly  to  have  died  out;  they  can  imitate,  but 
have  no  power  to  originate,  or  to  improve  upon  any- 
thing once  taught  them.  In  social  intercourse, 
there  prevails  a  linguistic  formality  beyond  that 
of  almost  any  other  people.  Each  family  adopts 
some  animal  or  plant  as  a  badge,  and,  in  tattooing, 
this  tribal  symbol  is  employed,  which  answers  to 
the  totem  of  North-American  Indians.  As  in 
South  Africa,  rude  outlines  of  men  and  animals, 
painted  or  etched,  are  found  on  rocks  here  and 
there.  Of  rulers  the\r  have  none,  but  only  lead- 
ers. Indeed,  no  word  denoting  "a  chief,"  or  "to 
command,"  is  known  among  them. 

Intensely  superstitious,  they  believe  in  sorcery ; 
and  men  become  professional  magicians  by  possess- 
ing the  wise  man's  or  "philosopher's  stone,"  so 
much  sought  for  in  Europe  during  the  Middle 
Ages.  Shining,  transparent  specimens  are  deemed 
sacred,  and  avail  as  amulets,  but  may  be  touched 


426  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.XI. 

or  seen  by  the  conjurer  alone.  Only  the  most 
dim  and  inadequate  religious  notions  prevail. 
They  hold  to  a  dualism  of  superior  powers,  one 
good,  one  bad,  each  with  countless  subordinate 
divinities.  Fear  is  the  universal  sentiment;  the 
love  of  God  to  man,  or  of  man  to  God,  being  for- 
eign to  their  conceptions.  Belief  in  the  immortal- 
ity of  the  soul  is  very  general,  and  the  notion  is 
entertained  that  disembodied  souls  become  white, 
and  may  reappear ;  that  the  soul  separate  from  the 
body  is  very  minute,  and  can  pass  through  a 
needle's  eye.  When  any  one  dies,  they  studiously 
avoid  mentioning  his  name ;  but,  if  obliged  to  do 
so,  they  speak  in  a  whisper  so  low  and  faint  that, 
as  they  imagine,  the  spirit  cannot  hear  their  voice. 
No  priesthood  exists ;  they  have  no  temples,  and 
offer  no  sacrifice  or  prayers. 

Intellectually,  the  Australians  are  inferior  to 
the  Potynesians,  the  Papuans  of  New  Guinea  and 
the  Negroes  of  Africa.  Of  all  the  human  family, 
they  must  be  placed  in  the  lowest  grade  of  the 
social  scale.  There  are  writers  who  maintain  that 
these  native  tribes,  like  the  Eskimos,  Negroes, 
Hottentots  and  Bushmen,  should  not  be  deemed 
human  beings  in  the  full  sense  of  that  term ;  that 
they  are  half  brutes ;  that  there  is  an  organic  dif- 
ference between  them  and  the  superior  races;  that 
they  are  not  so  endowed  mentally  and  morally  as 
to  be  capable  of  rising  to  a  level  with  the  Mediter- 
ranean nations  of  Europe ;  that  servitude  is  their 


WCT.XI.I  MORAVIAN  BEGINNINGS.  427 

natural  lot,  if  extinction  be  not  their  fate ;  hence 
that  it  is  absurd  to  attempt  their  emancipation 
from  abasement ;  that  kidnapping  is  legitimate, 
and  that  to  destroy  them  is  not  homicide.  In  ac- 
cordance with  that  sentiment,  Australian  aborigi- 
nes have  sometimes  been  shot  by  European  colo- 
nists, it  is  affirmed,  as  food  for  dogs. 

No  denomination  in  Christendom  is  farther  re- 
moved from  sympathy  with  such  unscriptural  sen- 
timents than  the  United  Brethren.  In  1850,  the 
Governor  of  Port  Phillip  was  Joseph  Latrobe, 
a  brother  of  the  Moravian  agent  in  London,  and 
an  obvious  link  thus  existed  between  the  little 
missionary  community  of  Herrnhut  in  Germany 
and  the  natives  of  Victoria.  Early  in  the  year 
just  named,  two  of  the  Brethren  arrived  at  Mel- 
bourne, and  proceeded  thence  northward  to  Lake 
Boga,  in  the  region  of  the  Murray  River,  two  hun- 
dred miles  northwest  of  Melbourne.  A  year  later, 
the  Government  made  them  a  grant  of  land ;  but, 
from  the  first,  disheartening  embarrassments  were 
encountered.  That  was  nearly  coincident  with 
the  discovery  of  Australian  gold  mines,  which  un- 
fortunately were  not  far  off;  and  the  same  twelve- 
month witnessed  the  arrival  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty-two  ships,  with  twelve  thousand  passengers, 
at  Port  Phillip.'  The  year  following  (1852)  there 

1  One  fleet  of  forty-five  merchantmen,  which  sailed  from 
English  ports  during  one  fortnight  in  1852,  had  on  board  not 
less  than  fifty  thousand  passengers  bound  for  Australia. 


428  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LBCT.XI. 

were  a  hundred  thousand  persons  at  the  gold-dig- 
gings. In  passing  the  m'ission  station,  which  lay 
between  the  Murray  River  and  the  gold-districts 
at  Mount  Alexander,  the  miners,  some  of  them 
thoroughly  unscrupulous,  seemed  bent  on  mis- 
chief. Station-fences  were  repeatedly  destroyed, 
and  no  redress  could  be  obtained  from  the  magis- 
trates. The  presence  of  religious  men  stood  in 
the  way  of  all  the  selfish  and  base  purposes  of 
such  adventurers,  who  took  pains  to  alienate 
the  natives  from  the  missionaries ;  and  their 
Satanic  devices  were  only  too  successful.  A  few 
English  gentlemen  formed  noble  exceptions.  For 
the  Brethren  to  acquire  the  vernacular  language 
was  a  slow  process;  still  slower  to  acquire  any 
controlling  influence  over  the  minds  of  natives, 
who  are  singularly  unimpressible  by  divine  truth  ; 
who  had  no  longing  for  the  bread  of  Heaven, 
but  only  for  tobacco.  "  Give  us  tobacco,"  said 
they,  "and  you  are  good  fellows!"  There  is  no 
word  for  thanks  in  their  language,  and  no  feeling 
in  their  hearts  that  requires  such  a  term.  Their 
ingratitude,  stolidity  and  threats  of  cannibalism 
might  be  put  Up  with ;  but  from  white  Europeans 
the  missionaries  had  a  severer  trial.  One  of  the 
latter  at  length  laid  claim  to  the  very  land  which 
h?.d  been  ceded  by  Government;  and  the  dis- 
heartened Brethren,  after  five  }Tears,  returned  to 
Germany  (1856).  The  Board  of  Directors  at 
Herrnhut  were  not  pleased  with  this  abandon- 


HOT.xi.3         EBENEZER   AND  RAMAHYUCK.  429 

ment  of  the  field,  and  resolved  upon  a  renewal 
of  the  attempt,  which  was  carried  into  effect  in 
1859.  To  the  new  station  in  Wimmera  District, 
two  hundred  miles  to  the  north  of  Melbourne, 
the  name  of  Ebenezer  was  given.1  In  spite  of 
the  stupidity,  the  debased  and  filthy  habits,  the 
roving  disposition,  of  these  wretched  aborigines, 
Ebenezer  has  now  assumed  the  appearance  of 
a  neat,  well-ordered  Christian  village,  numbering 
perhaps  one  hundred  and  fifty  souls.  Among 
these  is  a  small  church  of  Christ,  and  there  are 
several  families  constituted  with  due  religious 
rites,  in  which  domestic  happiness  and  an  aspect 
of  civilization  may  be  found.  After  two  years, 
another  station  was  begun  at  Ramahyuck,2  over 
a  hundred  miles  to  the  east  of  Melbourne,  in 
Gippslaud,  a  tract  lying  between  Melbourne  and 
New  South  Wales,  and  with  equally  encouraging 
results  as  at  the  other,  although  the  hamlet  is 
smaller  than  Ebenezer.  A  great  change  has 
come  about.  It  had  been  the  custom  of  the 
natives  to  burn  the  spears  and  clubs  of  a  person 
at  his  burial ;  those  who  are  Christianized  now 
do  this  in  their  lifetime.  Instead  of  the  per- 
petual quarrels  formerly  existing,  there  are  com- 
parative harmony  and  good-will.  Females  are 
treated  with  kindness,  though — owing  no  doubt 

1  The   two  men   who  went  out  at  that  time  were  Messrs. 
Spieseke  and  Hagcnaur. 

*  Ramahyuck  —  llama,  "  our  home." 


430  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.  xi. 

to  the  peculiar  enticements  which  surround  them, 
and  contrary  to  what  is  found  in  most  other  lands, 
civilized  and  savage — women  in  Australia  are 
less  accessible  to  divine  truth  than  the  men. 

But  has  vital  Christianity  obtained  undoubted 
lodgment?  Does  it  appear  that,  among  such 
dregs  of  the  human  race,  a  people  at  the  farthest 
conceivable  remove  from  Eden  and  from  Aryan 
capabilities  and  culture,  our  religion  will  find  any- 
thing to  work  upon — anything  that  can  serve  as 
a  fulcrum  for  lifting  so  low  a  stratum  into  the 
light  of  day,  and  on  to  the  general  plane  of  the 
kingdom  of  Heaven  ?  It  should  be  kept  in  mind 
that  the  surroundings  of  this  people  are  also 
peculiarly  unfavorable.  At  the  close  of  our  War 
of  the  Revolution,  English  prisons  were  crowded 
to  overflow;  and  in  that  circumstance  Australian 
colonization  had  its  origin.  The  first  contribu- 
tion which  Great  Britain  made  to  this  degenerate 
region  of  the  antipodes  consisted  of  her  surplus 
felony.  Shipload  after  shipload,  till  the  number 
transported  counted  up  to  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  the  worst  men  and  women  which  the 
United  Kingdom  could  supply,  were  discharged 
upon  the  southeastern  rim  of  the  unfortunate 
continent.  Not  the  horrors  of  the  slave-trade  in 
Western  Africa,  but  the  vices  and  outrages  of 
demoralized  civilization,  were  the  earliest  com- 
modity sent  to  this  ample  penitentiary.  Over 
half  a  century  goes  by,  and  the  gold  discovery 


LKCT.XI.]  SPECIAL  HINDRANCES.  431 

draws  a  crowd  from  many  lands,  not  a  few  of 
whom,  unprincipled  at  the  outset,  become  case- 
hardened  in  feeling  and  in  conscience.  Gold- 
digging  never  refines  any  man.  Gold  built  Mel- 
bourne ;  gold  built  Adelaide  ;  gold  is  the  basis 
of  all  material  growth  in  Australia.  True,  among 
voluntary  immigrants,  a  large,  most  respectable 
and  controlling  element  is  now  to  be  found  ;  but 
for  long  years  it  was  otherwise.  Governor  Mac- 
quarie  once  said :  "  There  are  but  two  classes  of 
persons  in  New  South  Wales — those  who  have 
been  convicted,  and  those  who  ought  to  be." 
We  are  told  of  one  Englishman  who  made  a 
savage  woman  carry  her  husband's  head  round 
her  neck  as  an  ornament,  he  having  first  divert- 
ed himself  by  the  murder.  Another  amusement 
of  the  civilized  colonists,  we  are  informed,  was 
catching  a  savage,  and  tying  him  to  a  tree  as  a 
target  to  fire  at.  And  such,  it  has  been  alleged, 
were  not  isolated  crimes,  but  specimen  facts.1 
No  right  of  soil  appears  at  any  time  to  have 
been  conceded  to  the  aborigines.  Under  the  pres- 
ent condition  of  things,  though  greatly  improved, 
each  European  applicant  may  choose  a  certain 
number  of  acres,  and,  on  payment  of  perhaps  half 
the  price,  may  enter  into  possession.  The  wide 
range,  such  as  any  people  that  subsists  by  hunt- 
ing require,  is  more  and  more  narrowed;  the 

1  Napier :  Colonization  in  Southern  Africa,  95. 


432  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LBCT.XI. 

game  on  which  the}7  largely  relied  for  subsistence 
vanishes ;  and  native  tribes,  who  have  always 
lived  in  mutual  hostility,  dare  not  migrate ;  they 
can  only  linger  around  their  old  haunts  and  per- 
ish. Ardent  spirits  have  been  freely  introduced, 
and,  as  is  the  case  everywhere  among  savage 
tribes,  have  proved  terribly  destructive.  Disease, 
starvation  or  violence  do  their  work.  One  clan, 
numbering  three  hundred  souls,  was,  in  the  course 
of  only  three  years,  reduced  to  four  persons. 

With  such  surroundings  and  with  such  results, 
what  impressions  regarding  a  people  called  Chris- 
tian must  be  made  on  the  native  mind  —  what  but 
distrust  and  dread  ?  How  incredulous  and  indis- 
posed must  they  be  concerning  all  efforts  to  im- 
prove their  welfare,  temporal  or  spiritual !  When 
Mr.  Hagenaur,  a  Moravian  missionary,  traveling 
with  a  young  native  (1862),  told  him  that  his 
countrymen  on  the  Wimmera  had  improved  a 
good  deal  since  the  establishment  of  the  mission 
there,  he  expressed  a  wish  that  the  missionary 
would  come  and  teach  the  people  in  Gippsland. 
"I  hope  to  do  so,"  was  the  reply.  "But  are 
you  telling  lies?"  said  the  young  man.  "Why?" 
asked  the  missionary.  "Because,"  said  the  native, 
"  the  whites  always  tell  lies,  and  the  blacks  can 
not  believe  them."  Uoder  the  combined  obstacles 
of  native  character  and  the  influence  of  immi- 
grants, would  it  be  strange  if  not  one  conversion 
had  been  effected? 


LKCT.  xi.3  OTHER   MISSIONS.  433 

The  Propaganda  sent  out  to  the  west  coast 
(1845-6),  with  Bishop  Brady  as  leader,  a  party 
of  Benedictine  missionaries,  consisting  of  seven 
priests,  a  sub-deacon,  a  French  novice,  an  Italian, 
eight  catechists,  two  laymen,  and  seven  Irish 
Sisters  of  Mercy ;  but  the  undertaking,  which 
was  attended  by  a  sufficient  flourish  of  trumpets, 
proved  a  failure,  except  one  small  station,  New 
Norica,  to  the  north  of  Perth,  in  the  interior, 
where  Salvado,  afterwards  bishop,  maintained  a 
more  permanent  foothold.1  The  next  year,  others 
landed  on  the  northern  coast  of  the  continent, 
at  Point  Essington ;  but  they  met  with  no  suc- 
cess. The  excellent  senior  chaplain  in  New  South 
Wales,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Marsden,  the  "Apostle 
of  Australia,"  a  name  much  revered  among  the 
Australian  islands  (1793-1839),  interested  him- 
self in  the  native  population,  and  seconded  efforts 
made  by  the  Church  Missionary  Society,2  which 
sent  out  Messrs.  Watson  and  Hand  (1832)  to 
Wellington  Valley,  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
northwest  of  Sydney.  A  Colonial  Government 
pledge  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  per 
annum  in  aid  of  the  mission  was  fulfilled  till  1857. 
But  the  pernicious  influence  of  the  convict  popu- 
lation on  the  outskirts  of  the  colony  was  suffi- 

1  Rudesindo  Salvado :  Memorie  Storiche  dell'  Australia.   Roma, 
1851. 

2  J.  B.  Marsden:  Memoirs  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Marsden.     Lon- 
don, Religious  Tract  Society. 

28 


434  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.  xi. 

cient  to  thwart  all  effort  in  behalf  of  the  natives. 
The  English  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society  sent 
out  a  Christian  laborer  to  the  neighborhood  of 
Sydney  (1821),  and  Governor  Bisbane  ceded  to 
the  mission  twenty  thousand  acres  of  land.  The 
results,  however,  were  small  —  indeed,  next  to 
nothing.  Four  years  later  (1825),  Mr.  Threlkeld, 
of  the  London  Missionary  Society,  established 
himself  among  aborigines  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Moreton  Bay,  five  hundred  miles  north  of  Sydney, 
and  the  Government  made  a  grant  of  ten  thou- 
sand acres  of  land  in  furtherance  of  the  object. 
Both  these  societies,  the  Wesleyan  and  the  Lon- 
don, relinquished  their  Australian  fields  in  1829; 
they  were  expensive  and  unproductive ;  but  Mr. 
Threlkeld  finished  his  translation  of  Luke's  Gospel 
into  the  language  of  natives  near  Lake  Macquarie, 
two  years  later  (1831),  and  the  same  was  printed 
by  the  New  South  Wales  Auxiliary  Bible  Society.1 
Under  a  missionary  society  which  had  been  formed 
at  Sydney,  Messrs.  Schmidt  and  Cuper  founded  a 
station  (1838)  called  Zion's  Hill,  near  Moreton 
Bay ;  and,  about  the  same  time,  the  Lutheran  So- 
ciety also  (then  at  Dresden,  now  at  Leipzig)  sent 
laborers,  Tischelmann  and  Schiirmann,  who  began 
operations  at  Adelaide,  the  capital  of  South  Aus- 
tralia, and  afterwards  at  Encounter  Bay,  sixty 


1  He  also  translated  a  number  of  hymns,  besides  preparing  a 
grammar  of  the  vernacular. 


LBCT.XI.]  OTHEE  MISSIONS.  435 

miles  east  of  Adelaide,  as  well  as  at  Port  Lincoln. 
Land,  dwellings,  schoolhouses,  were  provided ; 
nothing  was  wanting  but  natives;  and  the  mis- 
sionaries became  pastors  of  German  congrega- 
tions.1 Messrs.  Tuckfield  and  Hurst  commenced 
(1839)  occupying  a  tract  of  land  granted  by  Gov- 
ernment thirty  miles  from  Geelong ;  yet  little  im- 
pression was  made  on  the  native  mind;  roving 
habits  and  tribal  wars  were  here,  as  everywhere, 
in  the  way.  After  a  decade  of  labor  nearly  fruit- 
less, they  removed  (1848)  to  a  point  on  Murray 
River.  The  year  1840  witnessed  two  movements 
in  behalf  of  aboriginal  Australians — one  by  the 
Gossner  Missionary  Society  of  Berlin,  and  the 
other  by  English  Wesleyans,  who  established  one 
station  at  Geelong,  near  Point  Phillip,  in  South 
Australia;  afterwards  one  also  at  Bentingdale, 
a  hundred  miles  west  of  Melbourne,  and  another 
at  Perth,  on  the  west  coast.  The  Gospel  Propaga- 
tion Society  moved  toward  the  opening  of  a  mis- 
sion at  Somerset  Colon}7,  in  Queensland  (1867)  ; 
but,  natives  and  colonists  opposing,  it  continued 
only  a  year.  An  institution  for  the  children  of 
the  natives,  started  at  Albany,  on  King  George's 
Sound,  by  Mrs.  Camfield,  wife  of  the  English  mag- 
istrate,2 was  removed  by  the  Bishop  of  Perth  to 

1  Lutherans  from  Silesia,  who  could  not  accept  the  religious 
ordinances  of  Frederick  William  III,  emigrated  to  South  Aus- 
tralia.   This  led  to  an  attempt  in  behalf  of  the  natives. 

2  Mrs.  Edward  Millett :  Australian  Parsonage,  130-133 


436  MOEAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.XI. 

his  residence  in  1871.  Reference  might  be  made 
to  the  station  started  by  the  Anglican  Colonial 
Church  (1774)  at  Carmel,  on  Lake  Tyers,  twenty- 
five  miles  from  Ramahyuck;  to  labors  by  the 
Wesleyans  and  the  Gospel  Propagation  Society  in 
behalf  of  the  numerous  Chinese,  who  have  been 
attracted  to  the  gold-diggings ;  to  the  Bookooyana 
Mission,  begun  at  Point  Pearce,  on  the  west 
coast  of  York  Peninsula,  and  supported  by  the 
"Aborigines'  Friends  Association,"  under  the 
superintendence  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Kiihn,  who  is  a 
Moravian  ;  and  to  the  Hermannsburg  experiment 
in  the  interior,  which  had  to  be  relinquished 
(1873).  The  United  Brethren  were  also  led  to 
undertake  labor  at  Cooper's  Creek,  seven  hundred 
miles  from  Adelaide,  requiring  one  hundred  and 
four  days  of  indescribable  hardships  to  reach. 
Their  wagons  would  sink  in  mud  or  sand ;  water 
was  not  to  be  found  ;  the  heat  proved  intolerable ; 
sand-storms  were  blinding,  and  inflammation  of 
the  eyes  inevitable.  The  enterprise  was  entirely 
impracticable.1 

Great  disappointment  has  attended  most  of  the 
attempts  made  for  evangelizing  native  Austra- 
lians. Those  experiments  have  been  made  under 
an  ample  variety  of  auspices  and  methods,  but 
they  have  encountered  difficulties  quite  unusual. 
The  sad  peculiarity,  as  we  have  seen,  of  all  earlier 


1  The  attempt  at  Kopperamana  was  given  up  in  1860. 


LBCT.XI.]  FAILUEES   UNAVOIDABLE.  437 

attempts,  was  that  they  had  to  be  made  in  the 
presence  of  exiled  convicts,  then  amidst  the  cy- 
clone of  gold-hunting,  but  always  and  everywhere 
in  behalf  of  a  people  reserved  for  the  ultimate  test 
of  Christian  faith  and  patience.  Of  all  human 
beings,  that  people  seem  to  have  the  least  curios- 
ity, the  smallest  desire  for  improvement  in  any  re- 
spect, and  to  be  the  least  open  to  laudable  incite- 
ment from  contact  with  a  superior  race.  Gather 
them  into  a  school,  and  the  lesson  of  yesterday  is 
entirely  forgotten  today.  "  Of  what  use  is  it," 
they  say,  "  that  our  children  go  to  your  schools  ? 
What  that  is  useful  do  they  learn  there  ?  If  you 
draw  ours  into  your  schools,  we  will  draw  yours 
into  the  woods,  and  teach  them  something  of 
real  use  —  to  fish,  to  hunt,  to  make  weapons  and 
nets."  They  pick  up  English  with  no  great 
effort;  but  what  use  do  they  make  of  the  lan- 
guage? Chiefly  to  beg  for  brandy  and  tobacco, 
and  to  grow  voluble  in  cursing  and  swearing  — 
an  accomplishment  of  which  the  vernacular  does 
not  admit.  They  show  rare  aptitude  for  all  the 
vices  which  Europeans  and  outside  Asiatics  bring, 
and  which  require  no  organized  boards  or  help- 
ing hands  at  home. 

Since  the  time  when  (April  19,  1770),  from 
the  mast-top  of  Captain  Cook's  ship  Resolution, 
the  cry  of  "  Land ! "  was  heard,  it  has  seemed  as 
if  more  of  misery  and  detriment  than  of  good 
has  been  brought  to  the  aborigines.  Who,  we 


438  MOKAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.XI. 

ask  again,  who  were  the  first  messengers  sent 
from  England  ?  Not  messengers  of  mercy,  but 
jail-birds,  missionaries  of  the  pit ;  and  the  prevail- 
ing result  of  British  occupation  has  been  moral 
and  social  devastation.  As  it  is  written,  "How 
portentous  are  the  feet  of  them  that  preach  the 
gospel  of  destruction,  and  bring  sad  tidings  of 
bad  things !  "  The  European  bush-rangers  of  Aus- 
tralia have  been  pronounced  by  English  writers 
themselves  to  be  a  race  of  wretches  wholly  un- 
surpassed in  violence  and  treachery.  Their  pesti- 
lential profligacy  was  like  a  sirocco  from  "  the  lake 
that  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone."  Govern- 
ment policy  and  administration,  especially  in 
former  days,  proceeded  upon  an  arbitrary  assump- 
tion of  rights,  and  were  sometimes  thoroughly  un- 
christian. The  Parliamentary  Inquiry  of  1836, 
elicited  by  Sir  William  Molesworth,  drew  such 
a  picture  of  colonial  infamy  as  must  have  aston- 
ished the  most  apathetic  ;  and  the  Report  of  1837 
only  confirms  the  horrible  truth  of  statements 
then  made.1  Spanish  occupancy  of  the  West 

1  William  Howitt :  Colonization  of  Christianity,  471. 

"Mr.  Bannister,  late  attorney -general  for  that  colony,  says, 
in  his  recent  work,  British  Colonization  and  the  Colored  Tribes; 
'  In  regard  to  New  South  Wales,  some  disclosures  were  made  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  Mr.  Coates, 
and  by  others,  that  are  likely  to  do  good  in  the  pending  inquir- 
ies concerning  transportation ;  and,  if  that  punishment  is  to  be 
continued,  it  would  be  merciful  to  destroy  all  the  natives  by 
military  massacre,  as  a  judge  of  the  colony  once  coolly  pro- 


LMT.XI.J  DECAY  OF  ABORIGINES.  439 

Indies  was  hardly  more  fatal  to  the  aborigines. 
The  Adelaide  tribe  is  already  extinct,  and  so 
are  the  Burra,  the  Rufus  and  others.  In  none 
of  their  former  haunts  can  a  single  trace  of  them 
be  found.  Their  language  is  extinct.  So  com- 
plete is  the  annihilation  that  only  with  the  great- 
est difficulty  could  Mr.  Waterhouse,  the  curator 
of  the  museum,  collect  a  set  of  their  weapons 
for  the  Paris  Exhibition  (1878).'  Less  than  two 
hundred  thousand  of  the  aboriginal  people,  all 
told,  remain  on  the  continent  —  fewer  by  one  third 
than  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  United  States.  In 
Tasmania,  the  large  outlying  island,  the  last  na- 
tive has  died.2  It  required  only  sixty-six  years 
from  the  beginning  of  occupancy  here  by  the 
English  in  1803  to  exterminate  the  entire  popula- 
tion (1869). 

Of  late  years,  legislation  has  been  more  hu- 
mane ;  the  tone  of  colonial  sentiment  has  risen ; 
philanthropic  associations  and  endeavors  have  a 


posed  for  a  particular  district,  rather  than  let  them  be  exposed 
to  the  lingering  death  they  now  undergo.  But  half  the  truth 
was  not  told  as  to  New  South  Wales.  Military  massacres  have 
probably  been  more  common  there  than  elsewhere;  in  1826, 
Governor  Darling  ordered  such  massacres ;  and  in  consequence 
one  black  native,  at  least,  was  shot  at  the  stake  in  cool  blood. 
The  attorney-general  remonstrated  against  illegal  orders  of  this 
kind,  and  was  told  that  the  Secretary  of  State's  instructions 
authorized  them.'"  Ibid,  471,  472. 

1  Native  Tribes  of  South  Australia,  Introduction,  ix. 

2  Bon  wick  :  21ie  Last  of  the  Tasmanians. 


440  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  CLECT  xi. 

larger  place  ;  and,  though  success  in  evangelis- 
tic lines  has  not  been  great,  success  has  been 
achieved,  and  that,  too,  in  greater  measure  than 
mere  philanthropy  has  effected  temporal  im- 
provement. The  South-Australian  Presbyterian 
Church,  seconded  by  the  Free  Church  of  Scot- 
land, has  conducted  a  prosperous  work  at  Point 
Macleay,  under  the  superintendence  of  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Taplin  ;  and,  since  its  commencement  (1859), 
between  fifty  and  a  hundred  natives  have  become 
church-members.  Rather  unreasonable  in  their 
requests  they  may  be ;  their  frequent  wayward- 
ness may  be  a  trial ;  yet  says  the  missionary, 
"  I  know  that  in  these  homes  the  voice  of  family 
devotion  is  heard,  morning  and  evening,  led  by 
the  head  of  each  family.  This  has  come  about 
by  Christian  influence,  not  by  any  positive  com- 
mand on  my  part.  On  the  Lord's  Day,  instead 
of  a  wild  and  oddly  dressed  throng  of  savages, 
our  chapel  presents  the  appearance  of  a  decently- 
dressed  congregation  of  worshipers." ' 

Yes,  these  aborigines,  so  low  down  in  the  scale 
of  humanity,  will  be  represented  in  the  general 
assembly  of  the  redeemed.  The  first  Australian 
black  received  into  the  Christian  Church  by  bap- 

1   The  Narrinyeri,   118. 

"  When  I  got  down  there,  I  stood  a  moment  and  listened  to 
the  sounds  around  me.  Nobody  knew  I  was  there.  From  the 
young  men's  sleeping-rooms  came  the  sound  of  voices  singing 
devoutly  Ly te's  beautiful  hymn,  '  Abide  with  me !  fast  falls  the 
eventide.'"  Ibid,  117. 


LECT.XI.J         CHBISTIANIZATION  EFFECTED.  441 

tism  was  a  youth  on  whom  the  Rev.  Mr.  Chase 
of  Melbourne  took  pity,  when  he  was  found  wan- 
dering, hungry  and  naked,  in  the  streets  of  that 
city.  Becoming  warmly  attached  to  the  family 
of  that  most  excellent  man,  he  accompanied  him 
to  England,  and,  during  the  voyage,  showed  the 
first  signs  of  a  change  of  heart,  which  continued 
in  so  satisfactory  a  manner  that  he  could,  before 
long,  be  baptized.  He  came  from  the  Wimmera 
District — his  mother  had  been  shot  in  cold  blood 
by  a  white  man  —  and  he  had  made  his  way  to  Mel- 
bourne. His  desire  to  tell  his  countrymen  of 
Jesus  was  great ;  and  his  kind  friend,  Mr.  Chase, 
would  gladly  have  provided  him  with  an  educa- 
tion for  that  purpose.  The  unwonted  climate, 
however,  told  with  fatal  effect  on  the  youth's 
constitution ;  William  Wimmera  died,  trusting  in 
Jesus,  and  his  remains  lie  in  a  churchyard  at 
Reading.1  His  case  reminds  us  of  Karpik,  the 
earliest  Labrador  Eskimo  who  was  baptized,  and 
who  died  in  England. 

At  neither  of  the  localities  occupied  by  United 
Brethren  is  there  a  large  number  of  stationary 
natives — indeed,  only  a  handful;2  but,  among 
them,  there  have  been  and  are  those  unquestion- 
ably to  be  accounted  disciples  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  The  first-fruits  of  a  Moravian  harvest 


1  Periodical  Accounts,  XXX,  211. 

2  Not  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  at  the  two. 


442  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.XI. 

small  as  yet  was  a  degraded  black  man,  who 
received  (1860)  the  baptismal  name  of  Nathaniel. 
He  had  been  one  of  the  worst  savages,  but  he 
could  now  accept  reproof  with  an  humble  spirit ; 
his  addresses  and  prayers  were  marked  by  unc- 
tion ;  in  his  illness  he  looked  forward  with  joyful 
anticipation  to  being  soon  with  Jesus,  and  often 
exclaimed :  "  Oh  for  more  of  love  to  Him  who 
is  so  full  of  love  to  me ! "  and  at  the  last,  point- 
ing upward,  he  said,  "I  see  Jesus!"  (1877).  A 
brother  of  his  began  evidently  to  be  taught  of 
God  (1863):  "What  you  tell  me,"  he  testifies, 
"  pleases  me  better  from  day  to  day ;  I  like 
to  feel  that  Jesus  becomes  more  precious  to  me. 
I  know  I  am  a  sinner;  yes,  I  hate  myself  and 
my  sin,  but  I  hope  that  I  shall  obtain  pardon 
and  peace."  At  Ebenezer  was  also  one  Dicka- 
dick,  who  gave  pleasing  evidence  of  being  a 
renewed  and  pardoned  man.  Amidst  the  severe 
and  protracted  sufferings  of  his  last  sickness, 
"  Oh,  my  dear  teachers,"  he  often  exclaimed, 
"  I  thank  you  for  showing  me  the  way  to  Christ. 
The  Lord  bless  you  and  your  labors  among  my 
poor  fellow-countrymen  !  And  may  He  also  pre- 
serve your  wives  and  children !  And  my  Sav- 
iour, how  gracious  he  is!  To  him  be  thanks  and 
praise ! "  Then,  turning  to  his  wife,  he  said  : 
"  Amelia,  do  not  run  into  destruction !  Remain 
here  and  follow  Jesus ;  then  we  shall  meet  again." 
Once  he  said:  "Here  I  lie  and  wait  for  my 


LKCT.XI.]          CHBISTIANIZATION  EFFECTED.  443 

Saviour  to  come  and  take  me.  What  I  now 
suffer  is,  I  am  quite  sure,  for  my  good  as  regards 
eternity.  Jesus  suffered  much  more." '  Mention 
might  be  made  of  a  little  girl,  seven  years  of 
age,  who  fell  asleep  in  Jesus,  and  who,  to  the 
great  comfort  of  her  parents,  said,  a  few  moments 
before  her  end:  "Papa,  I  shall  leave  you;  I  go 
to  Jesus ! "  and,  with  a  beseeching  look,  added, 
"  Please,  papa,  follow  Jesus  !  "2  Such  dying  testi- 
mony will  be  deemed  the  more  noteworthy  when 
it  is  remembered  how  Australians,  in  their  hea- 
then state,  cling  to  life,  wretched  though  it  be. 
Suicide  is  unknown  among  them.  One  of  the 
most  pleasing  evidences  that  Christianity  has 
made  an  effective  lodgment  in  any  heart,  savage 
or  civilized,  is  a  desire  to  communicate  the  good 
news  of  the  great  salvation,  and  that  token  of 
a  genuine  work  has  not  been  wholly  wanting  in 
converted  Australians.  "If  you  wish  to  catch 
wild  elephants,"  it  is  said,  "you  must  send  tame 
ones  among  the  wild  troop ; "  and  there  are  cases 
of  native  Christians  acting  upon  that  adage,  and 
showing  a  wish  savingly  to  benefit  instead  of 
fighting  their  neighbors. 

What,  now,  has  brought  this  about  ?  Christian 
labor.  Take  out  that  distinctive  element,  and 
you  withdraw  all  the  real  power.  Experiments 


1  Periodical  Accounts,  XXVIII,  45. 

3  ibid,  xyy,  379. 


444  MOK AVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.XL 

of  a  different  kind  have  been  tried.  Great  pains 
were  formerly  bestowed  to  civilize  the  natives 
of  Sydney;1  gardens  were  given  to  them,  arid 
various  attempts  made  to  induce  habits  of  order, 
and  an  acquaintance  with  European  arts ;  but 
no  benefit  resulted,  and  the  colonists  there  — 
kindly  disposed,  but  not  wise  in  their  methods 
—  came  to  think  that  nothing  could  prevent 
native  deterioration.  They  did  not  clearly  appre- 
hend the  fact  that,  among  such  a  people,  improve- 
ment will  take  its  rise  in  the  conscience  alone, 
from  a  man's  most  interior  self,  and  proceed 
thence  outward ;  that  external  and  secular  mould- 
ing does  not  reach  the  real  man,  does  not  neces- 
sarily make  him  any  better,  nor  awaken  effective 
desires  for  elevation.  It  is  in  vain  to  anticipate 
fruit  before  there  is  a  root.  So  long  ago  as  1814, 
an  institution  for  such  native  children  as  could 
be  gathered  was  established  at  Paramatta  by  the 
Governor  of  New  South  Wales ;  and  once  a  year 
neighboring  tribes  were  assembled  near  Sydney, 
were  feasted  on  beef  and  potatoes,  and  dismissed 
again  to  the  wilderness  with  presents  of  blankets 
and  tobacco ;  but  nothing  to  speak  of  in  the  way 
even  of  civilization  was  thus  effected.  More  was 
learned  of  the  vices  of  convicts  and  immigrants 
than  anything  else.  In  the  course  of  a  score  of 
years  (1821-1842),  within  the  Colony  of  New 

1  Stokes :  Discoveries  in  Australia,  I,  262. 


LKCT.XI.]  CIVILIZATION   INADEQUATE.  445 

South  Wales  alone,  four  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars were  expended  upon  governmental  efforts  to 
ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  natives ;  but  the 
experiment  was  a  complete  failure.  The  few  abo- 
rigines remaining  there  are  no  better  morally  than 
their  forefathers  were,  nor  more  advanced  on  the 
road  to  civilization.1 

Turn  now  to  the  inexpensive  Moravian  opera- 
tion at  Ramahyuck.  The  land  is  poor;  yet  the 
natives  have,  with  great  pains,  been  trained  to  in- 
dustrious efforts.  Hops  and  arrowroot  are  culti- 
vated ;  for  the  latter,  not  only  was  a  prize  secured 
at  the  Melbourne  Exhibition,  but  samples  sent  to 
the  Vienna  Exhibition  won  the  prize  medal  there, 
too.  The  school  was  placed  (1874)  by  the  Gov- 
ernment Inspector  highest  on  the  list  of  rudiment- 
ary schools  in  the  Province  of  Victoria.  In  1876, 
the  missionary  in  charge  was  able  to  inform  the 
Aboriginal  Board  that  no  more  clothes,  blankets 
and  the  like,  which  are  distributed  among  the  na- 
tives, would  be  required  at  that  station.  Their 
health  has  improved;  life  is  prolonged.  Even  a 
surplus  of  cattle  are  raised.  A  royal  commission, 
with  Sir  William  Stowell  as  chairman,  appointed 
not  long  ago  to  inquire  into  the  management 
of  all  stations  and  into  the  present  condition  of 
the  aborigines,  reported  relative  to  this  Mora- 
vian establishment  thus :  "  Everything  in  and 

1  Native  Tribes  of  South  Australia,  Introduction,  ix. 


446  MOBAVTAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.XI. 

about  Ramahyuck  Mission  Station  was  found  in 
faultless  order.  The  children  were  cleanly  and 
well-clad,  and  many  of  them  educated  up  to  a 
standard  that  would  compare  very  favorably  with 
the  schools  frequented  by  white  children.  The 
adults  were  also  found  to  have  acquired  indus- 
trious and  well-regulated  habits.  Not  only  are 
the  blacks  on  this  station  well  cared  for,  and  ably 
instructed  in  all  those  arts  that  pertain  to  indus- 
trious and  rural  life,  but  they  are  taught  to  be 
contented  and  happy.  They  cultivate  arrowroot, 
and  raise  all  the  necessaries  of  life  on  the  station. 
The  children  save  their  small  change  in  money- 
boxes, and  the  adults  store  up  their  earnings  until 
they  can  be  invested  in  some  way  that  will  yield 
a  satisfactory  return." '  Yes,  and,  to  show  their 
thankfulness  for  the  blessings  of  the  gospel  which 
was  first  preached  in  Judea,  they  not  long  ago 
remembered  the  Leper  Hospital  of  the  United 
Brethren's  church  at  Jerusalem,  and  out  of  their 
poverty  contributed  towards  its  support.  The 
collection  for  that  object  amounted  to  more  than 
twenty-five  dollars.  The  gift  came  from  not  more 
than  twenty  to  thirty  persons,  members  of  one  of 
the  most  degraded  tribes  on  the  face  of  the  earth ; 
but  their  hearts  were  touched  with  love  to  the 
Lord  and  his  work. 

Formerly  all  they  had  in  the  way  of  a  habita- 

1  Periodical  Accounts,  XXX,  377. 


MCT.XIO  CIVILIZATION  INADEQUATE.  447 

tion  was  a  slight,  rudely-thatched  covering,  placed 
on  four  upright  poles,  between  three  and  four  feet 
high,  instead  of  which  they  have  now  neat  stone 
cottages.  Already,  in  1879,  some  of  the  native 
women  had  supplied  themselves  with  sewing  ma- 
chines, and  one  family  had  purchased  a  har- 
monium. It  was  Moravian  success  at  Ebenezer 
which  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Christian 
public  in  Victoria  to  the  aborigines,  and  showed 
the  possibility  of  their  elevation.  In  1861,  the 
United  Presbyterian  Church  applied  for  a  Mo- 
ravian missionary  to  labor  in  their  employ.  As 
regards  capacity  for  improvement,  even  Mr.  An- 
thony Trollope  is  compelled  to  confess :  "  I  heard 
the  children  examined  in  the  school.1  About 
thirty,  I  think,  there  were,  and  I  was  much  struck 
by  their  proficiency.  Their  writing  was  peculiarly 
good,  as  was  also  their  memory.  They  are  a  mi- 
metic people,  very  quick  at  copying,  and  gifted 
with  strong  memories."2  When  his  Excellency 
Lord  Canterbury  visited  the  same  school,  he  was 
particularly  interested  in  a  boy  of  eight,  who  had 
been  caught  less  than  two  years  before,  at  which 
time  he  knew  not  a  word  of  English,  and  had 
never  seen  a  book ;  but  now  could  read  tolerably 
well,  and  had  made  fair  progress  in  all  elementary 
branches,  writing  included.*  The  most  animating 

1  Instruction  is  wholly  in  the  English  language. 

2  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  I,  504. 

3  Periodical  Accounts,  XXVIH,  46. 


448  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.XI. 

fact,  however,  is  that  recently  (1879-1880)  the 
number  of  converts  has  nearly  doubled.  The 
Bible  may  be  found  in  every  house,  and  morning 
and  evening  worship  is  maintained.  In  spite  of 
great  embarrassments,  in  the  face  of  no  inconsid- 
erable ridicule,  contempt  and  scorn,  the  Brethren 
have  prosecuted  this  enterprise,  and  have  begun 
to  demonstrate  the  possibilities  of  Christianizing, 
and  so  of  civilizing,  a  people  morally  the  feeblest 
and  least  susceptible  to  elevating  influences  of 
any  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Moravian  mission- 
aries have  successfully  conducted  the  forlorn  hope 
of  evangelization. 

Indifference,  intense  worldliness  and  infidelity 
decry  these  efforts.  "To  me,"  says  Mr.  Anthony 
Trollope,1  "  the  game  is  not  worth  the  candle ;  .  .  . 
the  race  is  doomed,  and  is  very  quickly  encoun- 
tering its  doom."  But  what  is  it  that  dooms 
the  aborigines?  European  aggression,  European 
recklessness,  European  vice,  European  rum.  The 
savages,  naked,  stupid,  filthy,  forlorn,  were  not,  it 
is  true,  promising  subjects  for  philanthropic  labor. 
Their  mutual  promiscuous  slaughters  helped  to 
keep  population  down  to  a  low  figure ;  but  exter- 
mination would  not  have  been  reached.  That 
was  reserved  for  civilized  foreigners  to  effect. 
Their  hunting-grounds  were  seized,  their  means  of 
subsistence  cut  off,  indigenous  degradation  inten- 

1  Australia  and  New  Zealand.  I,  503. 


HOT.  xi.j  NOT  DOOMED.  449 

sified  by  imported  vices,  and  thus  their  doom 
sealed.  It  becomes,  then,  quite  a  convenient 
and  philosophical  apology  to  say  that  this  is  a  re- 
sult universal  and  inevitable  where  a  lower  type 
comes  in  contact  with  a  superior  one.  Did  the 
British  ancestors  of  these  Australian  colonists 
melt  away  before  disciplined  Romans?  Do  na- 
tives die  out  under  Dutch  occupancy  of  Asiatic 
islands  ?  Little  as  has  been  effected  by  mission- 
ary effort  in  Australia,  there  is  enough  to  show 
its  recuperative  power.  Christianity  knows  noth- 
ing of  a  doom  on  this  earth  which  persevering 
equity,  love  and  evangelistic  fidelity  will  not 
reverse.  Although  the  total  native  population 
of  Victoria  has  decreased,jene  half  since  the  es- 
tablishment of  Ramahyuck,  the  number  at  that 
station  has  not  diminished.  The  Narrinyeri,  for 
instance,  show  the  opposite  of  decay.  Children 
are  plenty  among  them.  Christianity,  once  fully 
adopted,  makes  them  more  vigorous  and  long- 
lived.1  It  has  been  demonstrated  that  other 
tribes  also  are  capable  of  rapid  improvement. 
Many  have  acquired  ease  and  correctness  in  the 
use  of  the  English  language,  have  become  skilled 
riders  and  superior  shepherds,  and  some  have 
been  made  children  of  the  Most  High.  While 
the  convict  immigration  and  too  many  of  the 
gold-seekers  were  "filled  with  all  unrighteous- 

1  The  Narrinyeri,  9. 
29 


450  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.  xi. 

ness,"  a  better  day  has  dawned;  for  better  men 
have  come,  and  a  better  administration  has  been 
inaugurated.  Lord  Stanley,  when  Secretary  of 
State  for  the  Colonies,  was  most  earnest  and  per- 
sistent in  his  instructions  to  the  different  Aus- 
tralian governors  regarding  the  treatment  of  abo- 
rigines.1 

Time  was  when  British  convicts  ignorantly 
broke  up  gold-yielding  quartz,  and  paved  the 
streets  of  Bathurst  with  it;  when  the  farmer, 
unawares,  turned  up  the  same  mineral  with  his 
plough  and  used  it  for  garden-walks ;  when  an 
Oxford  graduate  ornamented  his  walls  by  build- 
ing into  them  masses  of  white  quartz  variegated 
with  the  unrecognized  yellow  metal ;  but  pre- 
cious stones  and  human  souls  are  not  at  such 
discount  now.  Improved  sentiment  and  Chris- 
tian principle  have  been  gaining  ground.  That 
room  for  further  improvement  exists  is  evident; 
but  shall  men  bearing  the  Christian  name  say  that 
they  do  not  account  the  game  worth  the  candle? 
It  does  not  pay  to  obey  Christ's  command  in  the 
Pacific !  Australian  souls  not  worth  saving !  In 
the  day  of  final  judgment,  let  me  have  the  place 
of  any  despised  barbarian  of  Australia  rather 
than  that  of  a  baptized  litterateur  holding  such 
sentiments ! 

Australian  waters  have  long  been  proverbial 

1  Native  Tribes  of  South  Australia,  Introduction,  viii. 


LMX.ZX.]  NOT  DOOMED.  451 

for  roughness;  and  no  small  effort  yet  remains 
before  the  desired  haven  of  complete  Christian- 
ization  will  be  reached.  But  to  the  inquiry, 
"Watchman,  what  of  the  night?"  mariners,  gaz- 
ing at  the  most  beautiful  constellation  in  the 
southern  hemisphere,  reply:  "Midnight  is  past; 
the  cross  begins  to  bend." 


LECTURE  XII. 

AND  CHARACTERISTICS. 


RESUME  AND   CHARACTERISTICS. 


THE  only  field  of  Moravian  labor  among  the 
heathen  which  remains  to  be  surveyed  is  that  in 
Central  Asia.  It  was  begun  at  the  instance  of 
Giitzlaff,  the  well-known  missionary;  and,  though 
only  two  men  were  wanted  at  first,  thirty  re- 
sponded to  the  invitation.  The  two  who  were 
selected,  Messrs.  Pagell  and  Hyde,  lay  Brethren, 
hoped  to  reach  the  Mongols  of  Tartary  by  way 
of  Russia;  but,  being  refused  permission  to  take 
that  more  direct  route,  they  went  (1853)  to 
England,  thence  to  India,  and  onward  by  Simla 
toward  the  lofty  Himalayan  region  near  the  west- 
ern confines  of  Thibet  (1854).  In  1855,  they 
endeavored  to  enter  Chinese  Mongolia;  but  the 
extreme  jealousy  of  Government  made  it  imprac- 
ticable, as  also  two  later  attempts.  Accordingly 
they  established  themselves  at  Kyelang,  in  the 
Province  of  Lahoul  (1856) — the  mission-house 
being  ten  thousand  feet  above  the  sea  —  and  at 
Poo,  in  Kunawar  (1865).  The  same  year  that 
this  second  station  was  opened,  the  first  baptisms, 
four  in  number,  took  place  at  the  other  station. 
Between  thirty  and  forty  converts  are  reckoned 
in  later  reports.  Three  missionaries  are  on  the 

(456) 


456  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  ILECT.  xn. 

ground.  One  missionary,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Jaschke, 
a  descendant  of  the  pious  George  Jaschke  men- 
tioned in  Lecture  I,1  suffers  extremely  from 
impaired  health,  and  is  at  present  residing  in 
Herrnhut,  where  he  has  superintended  the  print- 
ing of  a  Thibetan-German  lexicon  and  a  Thi- 
betan-English lexicon.  Considerable  portions  of 
Holy  Scripture  have  been  translated  into  Thi- 
betan, also  hymns  and  other  contributions  of 
Christian  literature,  as  well  as  school-books ;  and 
.this  indefatigable  man  is  acknowledged  to  be 
the  best  Thibetan  scholar  in  Europe.2  At  both 
stations  above  named,  lithographic  presses  have 
been  established,  and  divine  truth  is  scaling  those 
more  than  Alpine  hights  of  Central  Asia.  Sel- 
dom, however,  have  Moravian  laborers  had  a 
severer  trial  of  faith  and  patience  than  amidst 
the  strongholds  of  Buddhism.  But  in  that  cold 
and  dreary  "  Dwelling  of  Snow,"  near  the  head- 
waters of  the  Indus,  the  Sutlej  and  the  Ganges, 
they  have  kindled  a  beacon-light ;  they  are  occu- 
pying advanced  posts,  and  preparing  a  base  for 
movements  into  Thibet  proper  and  into  China 
from  the  west,  as  well  as  into  Mongolia,  when- 
ever Divine  Providence  shall  call.3  The  time  for 


1  See  page  32  of  this  work. 

2  "  By  far  the  best  authority  on  the  language  of  Thibet." 
Max  Miiiler. 

3  H.  Schneider:    Ein  Missionsbttd  aus  dem  westlichen  Hima- 
laya.   Gnadan,  1880. 


uBCT.xn.i  UNSUCCESSFUL  MISSIONS.  457 

writing  a  history   of  the   mission,  however,  has 
not  yet  come. 

Nor  is  it  necessary  to  dwell  on  the  unsuccessful 
missionary  attempts  of  the  United  Brethren.  It 
would  be  singular  if,  in  the  course  of  a  century 
and  a  half,  they  should  not  find  themselves  con- 
strained, as  Paul  and  Barnabas  were  at  Antioch 
in  Pisidia,  to  retire  from  certain  fields;  and  singu- 
lar if  they  did  not  find  themselves  now  and  then, 
like  Paul  and  Silas,  '"forbidden  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
to  preach  the  Word  in  Asia."  They  did  retire 
from  Persia,  after  a  two  years'  experiment  (1747- 
1748) ;  and  from  Ceylon,  after  attempts  extending 
through  twenty-six  years  (1740-1766),  because  the 
Dutch  clergy  and  the  Colonial  Government  main- 
tained persistent  opposition;  from  the  East  Indies, 
after  six  years  (1777-1783),  the  cost  and  the  mor- 
tality being  excessive;  and  from  among  the  Cal- 
mucks,  after  a  struggle  at  different  times  for  more 
than  half  a  century  (1768-1823). '  A  movement 
toward  China  (1742)  and  another  toward  the 
Caucasus  (1782)  were  failures.  The  experiment 
in  Tranquebar  (1775-1796)  was  not  a  success. 
Africa  has  also  witnessed  evangelistic  disappoint- 
ments; for  example,  in  Algiers,  Ehrenfried  Itich- 
ter,  once  a  wealthy  merchant,  having  been  moved, 
although  advanced  in  age,  to  undertake  a  work 


1  Alexander  Glitsch:  Geschichte  der  Briidergemeine  Sarepta  im 
dstlichen  Russland.     Nisky,  1806. 


458  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LBCT.XII. 

in  behalf  of  Christian  slaves,  after  five  months  of 
earnest  and  successful  endeavors,  fell  a  victim  to 
the  plague  (1741).  There  was  failure,  too,  in 
Guinea  (1737-1771).  During  the  renewed  efforts 
of  three  years'  continuance  (1767-1771),  the  nine 
missionaries  who  went  out  all  died,  and  hence 
Western  Africa  was  relinquished.  In  Egypt, 
three  attempts  proved  abortive  (1752-1783) ;  mis- 
sionaries were  unable  to  reach  Abyssinia,  their  ob- 
jective point;  the  Copts,  among  whom  something 
was  attempted,  were  quite  indisposed  to  receive 
the  truth;  and  political  disturbances  rendered 
an  abandonment  of  that  field  necessary.1  While 
Greenland  and  Labrador  furnish  monuments  of 
success,  other  northern  enterprises  have  been 
baffled,  as  one  in  Lapland  (1734-1735),  because 
the  Swedish  Laplanders  were  found  to  be  under 
the  care  of  the  Lutheran  State  Church;  and 
one  among  the  Samoyedes,  on  the  shores  of  the 
Arctic  Ocean  (1737-1738),  where  the  missionaries 
were  arrested,  charged  with  being  Swedish  spies, 
thrown  into  prison,  and  finally  sent  back  to  Ger- 
many. The  mission  in  Demarara,  British  Guiana 
(1835-1840),  was  spoken  of  in  Lecture  IV* 

Here  and  there  about  the  world,  there  have 
been  numerous  instances  of  Christian  labor  per- 
formed by  individual  Moravians,  sometimes  under 
the  immediate  direction  of  the  Unitas  Fratrum, 

1  Narrative  of  the  Life  of  John  Henry  Danke.     London,  1830. 


LECT.XII.]  THE  DIASPORA.  459 

and  sometimes  otherwise.  Thus,  in  Florida,  a  gen- 
tleman supported  a  missionary  who  was  detailed 
for  the  purpose  of  laboring  among  the  slaves  on 
his  estates.  Five  minutes  out  from  the  Jaffa 
gate  of  Jerusalem  is  a  lazar-house,  founded  by 
the  Baroness  of  Keffenbinck  Ascheraden,  which 
was  from  the  first  (1867)  in  charge  of  the  Rev. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tappe,  formerly  in  Labrador,  but 
has  now  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Mora- 
vian church,  and  to  some  of  the  wretched  in- 
mates this  leper-home  has  proved  the  vestibule 
of  heaven.  There  are  also  various  forms  of  home 
work,  such  as  Young  Men's  Associations,  Ragged 
Schools,  Evening  Classes  and  Sunday  Schools, 
carried  on  by  the  German  congregations.  In  the 
British  and  American  provinces,  there  is  no  small 
amount  of  home-missionary  labor. 

If  it  were  proposed  to  take  a  comprehensive 
view  of  Moravian  evangelistic  work,  it  would  be 
necessary  to  notice  the  Diaspora,1  a  mission  of 
the  United  Brethren  among  the  State  churches 
of  Continental  Europe.  It  takes  its  name  from  a 
Greek  term,  signifying  the  Dispersion,  in  the  first 
verse  of  Peter's  First  Epistle.  It  is  carried  on 
independently  by  the  German  province.  This  en- 
terprise belongs  to  the  department  of  domestic 
missions,  its  object  being,  not  to  withdraw  mem- 
bers from  existing  churches,  but  to  foster  spirit- 

1  Ueberblick  iiber  den  Gang  des  Diasporawerkes.    1877. 


460  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  CLBCT.XII. 

ual  life  by  the  formation  of  societies  for  prayer, 
Scripture  readings,  and  for  edification  in  general. 
Missionaries  itinerate  through  Protestant  Ger- 
many, Switzerland,  Denmark,  Norway,  Sweden, 
and  Poland ;  through  Livonia,  Esthronia,  and  cer- 
tain other  parts  of  Russia;  visiting  from  house  to 
house,  and  holding  religious  services  in  chapels 
or  prayer-halls,  but  not  administering  the  sacra- 
ments. There  are  about  sixty  central  stations. 
This  form  of  unsectarian  effort  is  not  of  recent 
origin;  it  dates  from  1729,  if  not  even  earlier, 
when  it  was  found  necessary  to  establish  a  travel- 
ing ministry,  in  order  to  meet  the  wishes  of  those 
persons,  widely  dispersed,  who  desired  to  have 
fellowship  with  the  Brethren.  Whenever  Conti- 
nental state  churches  shall  be  disestablished,  an 
evangelical  element  now  gathered  into  societies 
will  doubtless,  to  a  very  great  extent,  become 
formally  connected  with  the  Unitas  Fratrum,  as 
has  already  been  witnessed  in  the  formation  of 
Swiss  Moravian  churches  since  the  new  ecclesias- 
tical regime  of  1873.  The  present  number  of  ad- 
herents is  estimated  at  seventy  or  more  thousand. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  there  may  yet  be  a  fulfill- 
ment of  the  striking  declaration  of  Schaffer  in  a 
sermon  at  Berthelsdorf,  one  hundred  and  sixty 
years  ago : '  "  God  intends  to  kindle  a  light  on 
these  hills  which  is  to  illumine  the  whole  country. 
Of  this  I  am  fully  and  firmly  persuaded." 

1  At  the  installation  of  Rothe,  August  30,  1722. 


LBCT.XII.]  IN  BOHEMIA.  461 

One  outgrowth  of  the  Diaspora  mission  is  a 
work  since  1879  in  Bohemia,  which  combines,  in 
some  measure,  features  and  aims  of  both  foreign 
and  domestic  missions;  and  special  interest  at- 
taches to  this  enterprise  from  the  circumstance 
of  its  being  among  the  seats  of  the  Brethren's  an- 
cient church.  Success  is  attending  the  movement. 
Four  Moravian  churches,  with  a  membership  of 
nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty,  have  been  gathered. 
Since  1867,  there  has  been  an  orphanage  at  Roth- 
wasser,  and  the  memorable  prayer  of  Comenius  is 
being  answered.1  The  martyrdom  of  John  Huss 
and  Jerome  of  Prague,  and  the  ministry  of  other 
Bohemian  reformers  before  the  Reformation,  have 
not  yet  accomplished  their  whole  work.  Historic 
heroism  is  reasserting  its  inspiration  today. 

The  missionary  spirit  at  Herrnhut  was  de- 
veloped at  first  more  especially  among  the  Scla- 
vonic members,  those  who  had  felt  the  heel  of 
Romish  oppression;  whose  relatives  were  still 
under  a  galling  yoke;  who  kept  in  mind  ances- 
tral night-worship  in  the  wilderness,  precious 
hymns  once  sung  with  bated  breath,  or  that  rung 
out  clearly  in  the  hour  of  martyrdom — a  testi- 
mony to  Christ's  cross  and  crown  that  was  cut 
short  only  by  the  executioner's  axe ;  and  who  re- 
membered also  rapt  supplications  of  their  fore- 
fathers, in  the  midst  of  which  earth  had  been  left 

1  See  page  30  of  this  work. 


462  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.XII. 

and  heaven  entered.  German  adherents  from  the 
Pietistic  school  became  assimilated.  The  season  of 
marked  spiritual  quickening  in  1727  fused  all  the 
elements  into  rare  fraternity,  a  true  Unitas  Fra- 
trum,  permeated  by. mutual  Christian  love  and 
love  to  the  Saviour.  But,  well  for  them  and  for  the 
world,  that  revival  did  not  spend  itself  in  the  lux- 
uries of  personal  religious  enjoyment.  At  Halle, 
there  was  a  growing  legalistic  spirit,  repressive  and 
restrictive,  rather  than  free  and  creative ;  at  Herrn- 
hut  there  sprang  up  a  strong  desire  to  have  others 
share  in  the  refreshment  of  quickened  spiritual 
life.  With  that  as  an  efficient  sentiment,  the  way 
was  prepared  in  the  hearts  of  the  little  commu- 
nity for  broader  sympathies  and  remoter  efforts. 
The  Waldensian  church  is  indeed  a  martyr  church, 
yet  not  till  since  the  Revolutionary  period  of  1848 
has  that  brave,  suffering  people  come  down  from 
its  fastnesses  among  the  High  Alps,  and  entered 
upon  evangelistic  work  at  various  points  in  united 
and  enfranchised  Italy.  But  the  renewed  Mora- 
vian church  has,  from  its  outset,  been  a  mission- 
ary church.  Happily,  it  did  not  become  a  state 
church,  nor  become  amalgamated  with  tha  Re- 
formed or  the  Lutheran  communion.  The  origi- 
nal idea  of  the  United  Brethren  was  religious  life 
and  labor,  separate  from  Protestant  churches,  not 
by  organization,  but  by  sphere  and  method.  On 
becoming  leader  and  presiding  genius,  Count  Zin- 
zendorf  aimed  to  give  the  community  such  form 


HOT.  XH.]        EARLY  EVANGELISTIC  SPIRIT.  463 

and  position  as  would  not  interfere  with  state 
churches,  and  would  keep  Herrnhut  so  far  out- 
side of  those  establishments  that  it  should  neither 
be  absorbed,  nor  be  marred  by  contact.  Imme- 
diate social  segregation,  and  at  length  ecclesiastical 
consolidation,  resulted.  From  the  first,  they  could 
well  have  said : 

"  We  are  a  garden  walled  around, 
Chosen  and  made  peculiar  ground ; 
A  little  spot  enclosed  by  grace, 
Out  of  the  world's  wide  wilderness." 

Proselytism  has  never  been  chargeable  upon 
them;  indeed,  from  their  earliest  day  they  have 
professed  not  to  desire  great  denominational  in- 
crease ;  non-extension  was  even  adopted  as  a  prin- 
ciple. At  the  same  time,  the  true  evangelistic 
idea  became  scripturally  dominant  —  the  purpose 
to  give  the  glorious  gospel  to  the  largest  possible 
number  of  those  who  had  never  heard  itv  They 
reduced  to  practice  the  truth  that  no  community 
can  be  so  small,  and  no  individual  so  poor,  as  not 
to  be  bound  to  do  something  in  this  line;  Only 
ten  years  after  the  first  tree  was  felled  in  the 
wilderness  at  Herrnhut  —  the  census  giving  merely 
such  a  number  of  souls  (600)  as  may  be  found  m 
a  New-England  hamlet — they  were  ready  for  a 
movement  beyond  sea.  Four  months  later,  they 
started  another.  Within  five  years,  they  began  as 
many  foreign  missions — in  1732,  to  negroes  of  St. 


464  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLECT.  XH. 

Thomas ;  in  1733,  to  the  Eskimos  of  Greenland ; 
in  1734,  to  Indians  on  our  continent;  in  1735,  to 
Indians  in  South  America ;  in  1736,  to  Hottentots 
in  South  Africa  ;  and,  within  four  and  twenty 
years  from  the  time  that  Dober  and  Nitschmann 
started  for  the  West  Indies,  eighteen  new  mis- 
sions had  proceeded  from  that  little  village  of 
glowing  evangelistic  zeal. 

Nor  did  this  prove  to  be 'a  mere  effervescence  ; 
missionary  thought  became  a  large  constituent  in 
the  continued  life  of  the  Unity.  It  grew  with 
their  growth;  it  had  a  conspicuous  place  in  all 
their  plans  and  movements ;  it  is  the  staple  of  their 
literature ;  it  was  prophetically  symbolized  in  that 
ancient  Episcopal  seal  of  their  church  which  has 
come  down  to  them  from  the  early  Bohemian 
Brethren — on  a  crimson  ground  a  lamb,  bearing 
the  resurrection  cross,  from  which  hangs  a  tri- 
umphal banner  with  the  motto :  Vicit  Agnus  nos- 
ter;  Eum  sequamur  ("Our  Lamb  has  conquered  ; 
Him  let  us  follow  ").  That  idea  has  been  the  very 
soul  of  their  organization,  and  the  secret  of  their 
prosperity.  It  occupies  much  time  in  delibera- 
tions at  their  ecclesiastical  gatherings;  a  certain 
number  of  foreign  missionaries  have  place  in  the 
General  Synod;  all  their  periodicals  are  largely 
occupied  with  evangelistic  affairs.  Herrnhut  and 
its  affiliated  settlements  are  not  so  much  ecclesias- 
tical centers  as  missionary  colleges. 

Especially  should  it  be  noted  that  the  Moravian 


LBCT.  xii.j  GROWTH.  465 

church  maintained  its  evangelical  soundness  and 
evangelistic  activity  throughout  the  eighteenth 
century  —  a  century  of  religious  inertness  on  the 
continent  of  Europe ;  a  century  of  spiritual  cold- 
ness, formalism  and  ever-widening  rationalism. 
In  spite  of  an  uninviting  native  soil  and  atmos- 
phere, Zinzendorf's  grain  of  mustard-seed  kept 
on  growing  slowly  and  steadily  till  it  has  become 
a  great  tree,  and  many  are  the  birds  of  the  air 
that  have  lodged  in  the  branches  thereof.  One 
hundred  years  ago  (1790)  there  were  less  than 
thirty  stations;  now  there  are  more  than  three 
times  thatf  number  (ninety-eight),  besides  fifteen 
out-stations.1  A  century  and  a  half  ago,  a  few 
shillings  in  the  pockets  of  two  poor  men  con- 
stituted the  entire  fund  of  the  United  Brethren 
available  for  foreign  missions;  now  the  average 
annual  income  from  Moravian  sources  at  home 
is  about  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and 
not  far  from  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars from  other  sources.  More  than  two  thou- 
sand brethren  and  sisters  (2,158)2  have  engaged 


1  At  the  first  jubilee  (1782)  there  were  twenty-seven  stations 
and  one  hundred   and  sixty-five   missionaries;   at   the   second 
jubilee  (1832)  there  were  forty-one  stations,  two  hundred  and 
nine  missionaries,  and  forty  thousand  adherents. 

2  At  the  present  time,  July,  1881,  the  stations  are  served  by 
three   hundred  and  fifteen  missionaries,  male  and  female  —  of 
whom  thirty-three  are  natives  —  and  one  thousand  four  hundred 
and  seventy-one  native  assistants. 

80 


466  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LBCT.XH. 

in  the  foreign  work;  and,  at  the  present  time, 
there  are,  under  the  care  of  missionaries,  over 
seventy-four  thousand  souls1 — more  than  twice 
the  number  of  members  in  the  home  churches 
of  the  United  Brethren  throughout  the  Ger- 
man, English  and  American  provinces.  But  the 
church  has  by  no  means  been  able  to  respond 
favorably  to  all  requests  for  new  undertakings; 
between  the  meetings  of  the  last  two  General 
Synods  (1869-1879),  seventeen  such  proposals 
came  before  the  Mission  Department.  Growth, 
however,  still  continues ;  the  last  fifty  years  show- 
ing a  gradual  increase  in  nearly  every  important 
item. 

Yet  mere  numerical  increase  of  converts  from 
heathenism  has  never  been  their  ambition.  This 
is  a  fundamental  maxim,  and  evidence  thereof 
runs  through  their  published  declarations.  "  We 
adhere  firmly  to  the  principle  that,  in  our  efforts 
for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  we  will  not 
chiefly  aim  at  a  large  number  of  persons  nomi- 
nally brought  to  a  profession  of  Christianity,  but 
strive  that,  by  means  of  the  gospel  preached  with 
demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power,  those 


1  There  are  twenty-five  thousand  two  hundred  and  ninety- 
eight  communicants.  There  are  two  hundred  and  eleven  day- 
schools,  with  sixteen  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty-seven 
scholars ;  and  eighty-nine  Sunday-schools,  with  twelve  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-one  scholars. 


LECT.XII.]  COMITY.  467 

committed  to  our  charge  may  be  really  turned 
'from  darkness  unto  light,  and  from  the  power 
of  Satan  unto  God.'  It  is  requisite,  first  of  all, 
emphatically  to  insist  upon  the  necessity  of 
change  of  heart  (John  iii :  3),  and  then  to  show 
that  true  faith  (James  ii :  17)  must  manifest  itself 
as  the  power  of  God  in  the  life  by  the  fruits  of 
the  Spirit  (Gal.  v:  22)."'  Their  missions  are  sub- 
stantially moulded,  so  far  as  circumstances  per- 
mit, after  settlements  planted  in  the  three  Mora- 
vian provinces,  so  that  there  is  real  and  visible 
unity  throughout  the  world,  though  the  regions 
and  nationalities  are  so  remote  from  one  another. 
To  secure  genuine  conversion  and  holy  living, 
the  Moravians,  like  all  other  Christian  laborers, 
find  no  easy  task,  especially  in  communities  where 
concubinage  has  long  prevailed,  and  yet  more 
especially  in  the  neighborhood  of  Roman  Catho- 
lic missionaries  —  not  to  name  any  Protestants 
—  who  are  ready  to  baptize  illegitimate  children, 
and  to  grant  the  parents  of  such  children  a  formal 
or  implied  standing  in  their  churches. 

As  might  be  expected,  they  observe  missionary 
comity,  not  building  upon  other  men's  founda- 
tions. "Ever  guard  against  proselyting,"  is  en- 
joined upon  all  missionaries;  "but,  if  members 
of  other  churches  are  led  by  change  of  residence 
or  by  marriage  to  seek  fellowship,  receive  them, 

1  Results  of  the  General  Synod  of  1879,  114. 


468  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  Ci.BCT.xn. 

yet  not  without  a  letter  of  recommendation  from 
their  minister."1  "We  never  enter  into  contro- 
versy with  any  other  denomination,  nor  do  we 
endeavor  to  draw  their  members  over  to  us. 
Much  less  do  we  attempt  to  win  over  to  our 
church  any  of  the  heathen  who  are  already  in 
connection  with  those  of  any  other  church."2  A 
vast  amount  of  friction  on  foreign  ground  would 
have  been  saved  if  the  agents  of  other  denomina- 
tions were  equally  scrupulous,  or  if  all  converts 
were  as  wise  as  the  one  who  said  to  an  Anglican 
clergyman,  when  he  was  endeavoring  to  entice 
her  away  from  the  Moravian  connection :  "  It 
will  be  well  if  you  keep  on  in  your  church,  and 
I  will  keep  on  in  mine."  One  advantage  in 
many  of  the  heathen  fields  selected  by  them  is, 
that  they  are  of  such  a  character  as  to  screen 
them  from  outside  proselyting  cupidity. 

The  United  Brethren  deem  the  heathen  to  be 
entitled  to  an  urgent  compassion.  The  Mission 
Department  gives  injunctions  in  terms  such  as 
these :  "  Being  animated  by  this  tender  solici- 
tude, you  will  not  fail  to  .be  faithful  in  seeking 
the  lost,  patient  in  tending  those  that  have  been 
found,  and  constant  in  your  intercession  for  all. 
Ah,  dear  brethren,  it  requires  great  faithfulness 

1  Instructions  to  Missionaries  of  the  West  Indies,  10. 

2  A  Declaration   Relative   to   Labor  Among  the   Heathen.     By 
Bishop  Spangenbcrg.     1768.     Also,  Instructions  for  Missionaries. 
Second  edition.    London,  1840. 


LKCT.XII]  READINESS  FOR   SERVICE.  469 

in  seeking  the  lost,  for  the  wandering  sheep  have 
gone  far  astray.  Many  a  weary  walk  will  you 
take  in  vain ;  many  an  earnest  call  will  be  lost  in 
the  air;  many  a  kind  entreaty  will  be  slighted. 
But  tender  love  for  their  benighted  souls  will  not 
allow  you  to  give  up  your  search  till  you  have 
found  the  poor  sheep,  and  brought  it  home  with 
joy.  Strong  is  the  power  of  Satan  in  holding  cap- 
tive the  souls  of  men,  but  stronger,  we  trust,  will 
be  your  compassion  for  them,  which  will  urge 
you  forward,  till  you  have  snatched  them  out  of 
his  hands,  and  brought  them  as  trophies  to  Im- 
manuel." 

Certain  characteristics  of  Moravian  missionaries 
attract  our  attention — characteristics  which  re- 
sult from  the  prevailing  type  of  piety,  as  well  as 
the  social  condition  and  habits  of  the  church  at 
home.  So  fully  is  the  duty  of  evangelizing  the 
heathen  lodged  in  their  current  thought,  that  the 
fact  of  any  one's  entering  personally  upon  that 
work  never  creates  surprise;  it  falls  in  with  ac- 
knowledged obligations  and  general  expectation  ; 
for  no  one  is  ever  urged  to  undertake  the  foreign 
service,  nor  is  urgency  ever  required.  The  an- 
swer of  Ledyard,  on  his  return  to  England  from 
an  expedition,  and  on  being  at  once  sought  for 
by  the  African  Association,  will  always  remain 
historical.  To  the  question  when  he  would  be 
ready  to  set  out,  he  replied,  "Tomorrow  morning.". 
So,  too,  Sir  Colin  Campbell  asked  for  only  twenty- 


470  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLKCT.  xn. 

four  hours  before  starting  for  India.  But  the 
former  was  habituated  to  distant  travels,  and  the 
other  to  military  exigencies.  At  Marienborn, 
Zinzendorf  sent  one  day  for  a  Moravian  brother, 
and  said  to  him :  "  Will  you  go  to  Greenland  tomor- 
row as  a  missionary?"  The  man  has  had  no  pre- 
vious intimation  of  the  matter.  For  just  a  moment 
he  hesitates, and  then  answers:  "If  the  shoemaker 
can  finish  the  boots  that  I  have  ordered  of  him  by 
tomorrow,  I  will  go." '  Promptness  of  obedience 
to  any  call  recognized  as  from  God,  so  far  from 
being  exceptional  and  awakening  surprise,  is  ha- 
bitual. It  is  a  settled  conviction  that  the  most 
abject  and  most  remote  of  our  race  are  within,  the 
line  of  that  covenant  which  embraces  the  ends  of 
the  earth ;  that  such  are  not  beyonci  the  redeem- 
ing efficacy  of  Christ's  blood;  and  hence  are  to 
have  a  place  in  Moravian  prayers,  and,  if  possible, 
in  Moravian  personal  efforts. 

The  circumstance  that  the  objects  of  evangelis- 
tic interest  may  be  difficult  of  access,  far  distant, 
and  far  down  on  the  social  scale,  is  not  regarded 
as  a  thing  that  calls  for  highly  demonstrative  pro- 
ceedings, or  for  a  widespread  heralding,  as  if 
something  marvelous,  or  even  unusual,  were  in 
hand.  The  spectacular  has  no  place  in  anything 


1  When  William  Chalmers  Burns  was  appointed  missionary 
to  China,  and  was  inquired  of  when  he  could  be  ready  to  start, 
he  answered,  "  Tomorrow." 


I.ECT.  xii.]  UNOSTENTATIOUS   HABITS.  471 

that  concerns  mission-work  by  the  United  Breth- 
ren. The  kingdom  of  Heaven  cometh  not  with 
observation ;  the  clear  shining  of  the  light  makes 
no  noise,  and  requires  no  voucher.  "We  think  it 
a  great  mistake,"  said  the  Rev.  Christian  Ignatius 
Latrobe,  many  years  secretary  of  the  Brethren  in 
England,  "we  think  it  a  great  mistake,  after  their 
appointment,  when  they  are  held  up  to  public  no- 
tice and  admiration,  and  much  praise  is  bestowed 
upon  their  devotedness  to  the  Lord,  presenting 
them  to  the  congregation  as  martyrs  and  confes- 
sors, before  they  have  even  entered  upon  their  la- 
bors. We  rather  advise  them  to  be  sent,  out  quietly, 
recommended  to  the  fervent  prayers  of  the  con- 
gregation, which  is  likewise  most  agreeable  to 
their  own  feelings  if  they  are  humble  followers 
of  Christ."  With  an  exemption  from  the  illusive 
and  the  romantic  that  is  noteworthy,  and  a  so- 
briety and  an  unostentatious  bearing  that  com- 
mand confidence  and  even  admiration,  candidates 
for  foreign  service  start  on  their  long  journeys  and 
voyages.  Their  inspiration  has  a  higher  and  more 
enduring  source  than  the  popular  platform,  or  the 
emblazonment  of  the  press.  It  never  seems  to  be 
so  much  their  desire  to  have  the  praise  of  men  in 
their  ears  as  the  peace  of  God  in  their  souls.  Few 
failures  in  Christian  standing  have  occurred  among 
them.  The  genius  of  Herrnhut,  and  of  its  mis- 
sions no  less,  finds  utterance  in  the  Litany,  where, 
amidst  entreaties  for  personal  blessings,  occurs  the 


472  MOEAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.XII. 

petition :  "  From  the  unhappy  desire  of  becoming 
great,  preserve  us,  gracious  Lord  and  God."  Once 
arrived  at  their  destination,  and  introduced  to  all 
the  varied  experiences  of  their  work,  missionaries, 
when  writing  home,  send  only  an  unvarnished  nar- 
rative of  proceedings.  No  staff  of  foreign  laborers 
give  less  exaggerated  reports,  or  reports  with  less 
suppression  of  unwelcome  truth. 

I  have  spoken  of  promptness  for  service.  It 
must  not  be  understood  that  this  proceeds  from 
any  apparent  constraint,  otherwise  than  as  the 
love  of  Christ  constraineth  them.  Missionaries 
of  the  United  Brethren  go  cheerfully  to  their 
allotted  sections  in  the  great  and  rugged  vine- 
yard ;  for  the  most  part,  they  toil  not  only  with- 
out murmuring,  but  with  contentment.  The  tedi- 
ousness  of  exile  is  beguiled  by  sacred  song ;  their 
temperament  is  neither  sanguine  nor  melancholic; 
difficulties  they  meet  with  serene  indifference  or 
with  persistent  hopefulness.  Christian  loyalty 
knows  nothing  of  latitude.  On  the  part  of 
Moravians,  the  accepted  sentiment  is,  that  in 
God's  providence  it  falls  peculiarly  to  them  to 
go  out  into  the  highways  and  hedges  of  the 
wide  world,  to  cultivate  an  aptitude  for  the  im- 
practicable, as  others  would  term  it;  and  hence 
it  requires  no  effort  for  them  to  become  pioneers, 
the  outlying  pickets,  of  the  great  missionary  army. 
Tribes  the  most  stolid,  debased,  isolated,  and 
insignificant,  are  chiefly  their  chosen  sphere. 


jjtcT.rii.]  MISSIONARY  CHILDREN.  473 

And,  in  carrying  glad  tidings  to  such,  should  there 
be  any  less  gladness  than  on  the  same  errand 
to  the  more  cultured  and  the  more  populous? 
Are  such  any  less  in  need  of  the  gospel,  any 
less  within  the  scope  of  Christ's  last  com- 
mand ? 

For  those  called  to  spend  their  best  days  in 
such  uncongenial  regions,  it  is  a  relief  that  pen- 
sions, though  small,  are  secured  to  missionaries 
—  as  is  true  of  all  who  hold  any  spiritual  office  — 
when  disabled  by  old  age  or  otherwise ;  and  it 
is  also  no  small  relief  that  their  children  are 
to  be  educated  at  the  general  expense,  being 
sent  to  Germany  or  elsewhere,  for  that  purpose, 
when  about  eight  years  of  age.  It  indicates  a 
hearty  traditional  interest  in  the  good  work,  that 
the  children  and  children's  children  of  so  many 
missionary  families  should  follow  in  the  steps 
of  their  parents.  One  member  of  the  present 
directing  board,  formerly  a  missionary  himself 
in  South  Africa,  has  three  children  in  the  ser- 
vice ;  and  quite  recently  Mrs.  Berkenhagen  has 
gone  to  the  Mosquito  coast,  a  representative 
of  the  sixth  generation  of  her  family  —  that  of 
Matthew  Stach,  in  direct  descent  —  which  has 
been  devoted  to  foreign  work  in  Greenland  and 
Central  America  for  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years. 

A  word  is  required  in  regard  to  financial 
matters.  Besides  contributions  by  members  of 


474  MOKAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LKCT.XII. 

the  church  in  the  home  provinces,  some  mention 
should  be  made,  among  the  sources  of  revenue, 
of  the  funded  legacies — yielding  about  eighteen 
thousand  dollars  annually  —  which  have  been  left 
for  missionary  purposes  with  the  proviso  that 
the  interest  alone  be  used ;  and  reference  should 
be  made  to  annual  grants  from  associations  estab- 
lished in  the  three  provinces  of  the  church.  Of 
these  the  chief  are :  "  The  Brethren's  Society  for 
the  Furtherance  of  the  Gospel,"  established  in 
London,  1741,  which  owns  a  missionary  vessel 
and  assumes  the  entire  support  of  the  Labra- 
dor Mission  ;  "  The  Missionary  Society  of  Zeist," 
Holland,  dating  from  1793,  which  has  largely 
aided  in  supporting  the  work  in  Surinam  ;  "  The 
Missionary  Union  of  North  Schleswig,"  dating 
from  1843;  "The  Society  of  the  United  Brethren 
for  Propagating  the  Gospel  among  the  Heathen," 
organized  at  Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania,  in  1787; 
and  "  The  Wachovia  Society  of  the  United  Breth- 
ren for  Propagating  the  Gospel  among  the  Hea- 
then," at  Salem,  North  Carolina,  originated  in 
1823.  These  are  simply  auxiliaries  for  raising 
funds;  they  do  not  themselves  commission  or 
send  out  laborers ;  and  hence  should  not  be  enu- 
merated, as  is  sometimes  done,  among  foreign 
missionary  societies. 

The  economical  regimen  and  habits  of  Moravian 
missionaries  deserve  notice.  One  governing  idea 
throughout  the  church,  whether  in  its  home  or  its 


LECT.  xii.]  FRUGALITY.  475 

missionary  provinces,  is  the  reflex  of  their  name, 
Unitas  Fratrum.  The  unity  of  the  whole  body  is 
sedulously  promoted  in  many  ways.  /_It  is  a  duty 
required  of  the  stronger  to  aid  the  weaker,  and 
of  every  one  to  help  the  community.  Whatever, 
then,  any  missionary  may  earn  is  passed  to  the 
credit  of  the  general  treasury.  On  the  score  of 
accumulation  there  can  be  no  invidious  distinc- 
tions, for  no  missionary  may  engage  in  any  busi- 
ness on  his  own  account,  and  no  one  who  carries 
on  business  for  the  mission  has  a  right  to  claim  a 
share  in  the  profits.1! 

True,  the  classes  in  society  from  which  they 
come  are,  in  large  part,  of  that  grade  which  is 
accustomed  to  frugality  —  artisans  and  husband- 
men. A  majority  of  them  are  beforehand  inured 
to  toil ;  yet,  independently  of  this,  the}'  gladly 
accept  the  apostolic  example  of  ministering  with 
their  own  hands  to  their  own  necessities.  The 
benefit  of  the  whole  is  enforced  as  a  motive. 
It  is  a  sentiment  deeply  inwrought  among  the 
United  Brethren  that  all  labor,  manual  no  less 


1  Regulations  Issued  by  the  Missionary  Department,  21. 

"  If  our  missionaries  have  private  property,  they  are  not  abso- 
lutely expected  to  make  use  of  the  interest  or  principal  for  their 
subsistence.  But  it  is  to  be  understood  that  such  articles  as 
serve  only  for  enjoyment  or  convenience,  and  are  not  needed 
for  actual  subsistence  or  the  discharge  of  official  duties,  are 
never  to  be  procured  otherwise  than  at  private  expense." 
Ibid,  15. 


476  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.XU. 

than  evangelistic,  should  be  carried  on  as  a  con- 
secrated part  of  life ; '  and  hence,  in  their  concep- 
tion, there  is  nothing  so  rough  or  so  humble  as 
not  to  have  dignity  and  beauty.  Our  wants 
always  depend  largely  upon  our  manageable 
desires ;  and  Moravian  missionaries  make  up  their 
minds  to  have  but  few  wants.  Their  style  of 
living,  and  the  surroundings  with  which  they  fur- 
nish themselves,  are  simple,  comparatively  inex- 
pensive, and  happily  less  removed  from  the  means 
and  modes  of  those  whom  they  seek  to  benefit 
than  is  the  case  with  sundry  other  Protestant 
missionaries.  To  make  upon  natives  the  impres- 
sion of  wealth  is  to  stimulate  their  greed,  and  to 
render  a  successful  presentation  of  saving  truth 
much  more  difficult/  Experience  for  over  a  hun- 
dred years  has  uniformly  shown  that  a  conscien- 
tious management  of  temporal  affairs  stands  in 
close  connection  with  internal  prosperity,  while 
unfaithfulness  or  carelessness  in  temporalities  has 
been  no  less  closely  related  to  spiritual  decay.2 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  should  not  be  in- 
ferred that  these  foreign  laborers  are  ignorant  and 


1  "  The  missionary  should  take  a  pleasure  in  saving  or  earn- 
ing whatever  he  can,  with  propriety,  on  behalf  of  the  mission 
in  which  he  is  employed,  remembering  that  everything  saved 
or  earned  is  an  advantage   to  the  General  Mission  Fund,  the 
claims  upon  which   have  become  so  numerous  and  so  heavy." 
Instructions  to  Missionaries.     Second  edition.     London,  1840. 

2  Regulations  Issued  by  the  Mission  Department,  17. 


LECT.  xn.]  LITERARY  LABORS.  477 

altogether  uncultivated.  Taken  as  a  whole,  they 
are  persons  of  good  natural  parts,  good  temper, 
practical  wisdom,  and  a  good  common  education. 
Many  are  thoroughly  educated;  some  have  been, 
and  some  now  are,  excellent  scholars,  as,  for  in- 
stance, at  the  present  time,  the  Superintendent 
of  the  Jamaica  Mission,  who  is  a  proficient  in 
classical  and  Hebrew  learning.  Whatever  the 
nationality,  some  degree  of  acquaintance  with 
the  English  language  is  very  general  among 
them.  In  1869,  a  missionary  training-school  was 
opened  at  Nisky,  twenty  miles  from  Herrnhut, 
in  Prussian  Silesia,  for  the  purpose  of  a  more 
thorough  preparation.  The  names  of  Zeisberger, 
Kleinschmidt,  arid  Jaschke  have  a  recognized 
place  in  philological  circles.  Abraham  Luken- 
bach  and  Christian  Denke  should  be  named  as 
among  those  who  studied  and  developed  Indian 
dialects;  while,  in  South  Africa,  Hallbeck  was 
classed  among  men  of  highly  respectable  literary 
attainments.  Allusion  to  some  specific  specimens 
of  literary  work  performed  by  missionaries  of  the 
Unity  will  indicate  that  a  certain  degree  of  learn- 
ing is  not  uncommon  among  them.  Protestant 
missions  are  usually  prompt,  while  Roman  Cath- 
olic missions  never  are,  to  introduce  portions,  at 
least,  of  God's  Word  into  heathen  vernaculars. 
It  might  be  expected  that  representatives  of  the 
Renewed  Moravian  Church  would  not  be  behind- 
hand in  this  appropriate  work.  Into  the  Eskimo 


478  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  [LECT.XII. 

dialect  of  Labrador  there  has  been  translated  the 
entire  Bible,  which  has  been  many  times  revised  ; 
a  Book  of  Psalmody,  containing  eight  hundred 
and  eighty  hymns  and  an  appendix  of  Sankey's 
hymns ;  a  Harmony  of  the  Gospels ;  a  Summary 
of  Christian  Doctrine  ;  Luther's  Exposition  of  the 
Apostles'  Creed ;  Earth's  Bible  Stories ;  Ques- 
tions and  Answers  on  Scripture  Names  and  Ex- 
pressions ;  a  Liturgy ;  various  tracts ;  Song-Book, 
with  music,  for  schools ;  a  Geography ;  and  a  Dic- 
tionary in  two  volumes.  In  the  Greenland  dia- 
lect, besides  a  number  of  the  foregoing,  there  is, 
in  addition  to  the  old  Grammar  and  Dictionary 
by  Stach,  a  recent  Grammar  by  Kleinschmidt,  to 
which  men  of  learning  accord  high  praise.  The 
Arawak  has  been  enriched  by  a  part  of  the  New 
Testament,  besides  a  Harmony  of  the  Gospels,  a 
Hymn-BocK,  a  Grammar  and  a  Dictionary.  Sev- 
eral works  have  been  rendered  into  the  Kafir. 
I  need  not  here  repeat  what  has  been  said  of 
works  in  the  Delaware,  the  Creole-English,  and 
the  Thibetan;  nor  will  I  linger  upon  what  has 
been  accomplished  in  a  few  other  tongues. 

It  may  seem  invidious  to  speak  of  the  devo- 
tional habits  of  Moravian  missionaries;  yet  this 
can  be  said,  without  breach  of  delicacy,  that  the 
church  of  the  United  Brethren  is  a  praying 
church;  and  that  the  subject  of  gospel  promulga- 
tion occupies  probably  a  larger  place  in  their 
devotions  than  among  any  other  religious  commu- 


LKCT.XIIO  DEVOTIONAL  HABITS.  479 

nity.  To  an  unusual  extent,  their  hymns  for 
social  worship  relate  to  the  coming  triumphs  of 
Christ's  kingdom.  In  the  liturgy  prescribed  for 
every  Sunday-morning  service  are  petitions  like 
these :  "  Prosper  the  endeavors  of  all  thy  ser- 
vants to  spread  the  gospel  among  heathen  nations. 
Accompany  the  word  of  their  testimony  concern- 
ing thy  atonement  with  demonstration  of  the 
Spirit  and  of  power."  The  Monthly  Concert  for 
Prayer,  on  the  first  Monday  of  the  month,  is  held 
in  all  the  provinces.  On  the  twenty-seventh  of 
August,  1872,  the  Memorial  Day  of  the  Hourly 
Intercession  of  the  Renewed  Church  (1727),  there 
was  instituted,  by  a  voluntary  movement,  a  Mora- 
vian Prayer  Union ;  and  the  members  make  use 
of  topics  for  daily  intercession  in  concert  through 
the  week.  The  topic  for  Monday  is,  "  Christian 
Missionaries,"  prayer  being  offered  —  "for  all  mis- 
sionary societies  and  missions  to  both  Jews  and 
heathens;  for  the  new  work  in  Central  Africa; 
for  India  and  China ;  for  our  own  foreign  mis- 
sions in  particular ;  our  brethren  and  sisters  sta- 
tioned in  heathen  lands;  that  more  zeal  and  self- 
denial  may  be  aroused  at  home  on  behalf  of  the 
mission  cause ;  that  young  men  with  a  true  mis- 
sionary spirit  may  be  stirred  up  to  offer  them- 
selves for  the  Lord's  work ;  and  that  all  may 
learn  the  duty  and  privilege  of  serving  the  Lord 
by  giving.  We  pray  especially  for  a  blessing 
upon  our  church's  work  in  Bohemia,  and  for  an 


480  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.XII. 

open  door  for  gospel  labor  in  Moravia."  The 
Prayer  Union  has  issued  a  little  volume  of  daily 
prayers  for  households.1  Among  the  supplica- 
tions on  which  our  eye  rests2  are  these:  "Bless 
the  congregations  gathered  from  the  heathen,  in 
Labrador  and  Greenland,  in  South  Africa  and 
Australia,  in  North  America  and  Central  Asia, 
in  Surinam  and  the  Islands  of  the  Western  Sea. 
Own  the  labors  and  sustain  the  courage  of  our 
dear  missionaries  and  their  devoted  wives,  and 
enable  them  to  commit  their  children  to  thy 
loving  care  for  soul  and  body.  Watch  over  thy 
messengers  both  by  land  and  sea,  and  continue 
to  hold  thy  hand  over  our  ship  Harmony  in  her 
annual  voyages  amidst  ice  and  rocks  and  stormy 
seas.  .  .  .  Teach  us  to  deny  ourselves,  that  we 
may  give  to  thee,  whether  of  our  abundance  or 
our  poverty.  .  .  .  May  all  our  ministers  and  mis- 
sionaries adhere  firmly  to  the  word  of  thy  cross, 
and  with  all  boldness  and  simplicity  preach  Christ 
and  him  crucified;  kindle  and  fan  amongst  us 
the  flame  of  a  truly  missionary  spirit;  and  pour 
out  upon  us  and  our  whole  church  the  spirit  of 
grace  and  of  supplications  on  behalf  of  thy  great 
world-wide  work."  Missionaries  share  that  spirit 
in  no  inferior  degree ;  they  wait  habitually  upon 
God  for  the  indications  of  his  providence ;  they 


1  London,  32  Fetter  Lane. 

2  Pages  7-8,  77,  79. 


LECT.XII.J       PROVIDENTIAL   PRESERVATION.  481 

propose  not  to  run  before  being  sent,  but,  being 
sent,  they  trust  with  rare  implicitness. 

When  we  consider  the  character  of  those  tribes 
among  whom  labor  has  been  carried  on  for  a 
century  arid  a  half,  it  will  seem  surprising  that 
no  more  Moravians  have  fallen  by  the  hand  of 
violence  ;  and,  when  it  is  further  considered  that 
the  brethren  and  sisters  who  have  been  engaged 
in  the  foreign  service  number  over  two  thousand, 
that  most  of  them  have  crossed  the  ocean  more 
than  once,  and  that  usually  the  voyages  are  at- 
tended by  special  perils,  it  must  impress  us  that 
the  sea  holds  no  more  of  their  dead  to  be  given 
up  on  the  resurrection  morning.1  Only  thirty 


1  The  following  have  lost  their  lives  at  sea : 

17:;6.  Andrew  Hickel,  the  widows  Maria  Franke  and  Judith 
Leupold,  on  their  return  from  the  Danish  West  Indies. 

1740.  Albinus  Theodore  Feeder,  of  Tortola,  on  his  passage 
to  the  West  Indies. 

1742.    Daniel  Schneider,  on  his  return  from  Greenland. 

1747.  Joseph  Shaw,  his  wife  Maria,  and  J.  M.  Huber.  on  their 
voyage  from  North  America  to  the  Danish  West  Indies. 

1774.  Christopher  Brazen  and  Gottfried  Lehman,  on  the 
coast  of  Labrador. 

1770.    Anna  Rosina  Michel,  wrecked  off  the  Shetland  Isles. 

1786.  Christian  Heinze  and  Sister  Konigseer,  on  their  return 
from  Greenland. 

1798.  J.  Christian  Hodgson  and  his  wife  Anne  Elizabeth,  ou 
their  voyage  from  St.  Kitts  to  Barbados. 

1S17.    John  Frederick  Kranich.on  his  return  from  Greenland. 


482  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.XII 

are  recorded  as  having  suffered  death  by  violence 
or  accident.1 

It  would  be  strange  if  the  mission-work  of 
such  a  people  did  not  conciliate,  so  far  as  it 
becomes  known,  the  favorable  regard  of  all  evan- 
gelical Christians.  That  has  been  done,  and  not 
by  a  formal  challenging  of  admiration,  but  by 
modest  perseverance  in  their  noble  undertakings. 
It  has  fallen  to  them  to  lead  the  forlorn  hope  of 
evangelization.  Oblivious  of  pestilence  and  the 
tornado,  of  privation,  opposition  and  contempt, 
they  have  held  on  in  their  appointed  path  of 
obedience  to  Christ's  last  command.  Now  and 
then  invited  to  labor  among  Europeans  settled 
as  colonists,  they  have  in  no  instance  turned 
aside  from  their  devotion  to  the  barbarian.  Suc- 


1  The  following  fourteen  have  lost  their  lives  at  or  near 
their  respective  stations : 

1743.  George  Zeisberger,  drowned  in  the  Cottika,  in  Suri- 
nam. 

1752.  Seven  Brethren,  three  sisters,  and  a  child,  either  shot 
or  burned  with  their  dwelling,  by  Indians  who  destroyed  the 
Mission  House  at  Gnadenhiitten  on  the  Mahony. 

1752.  J.  Christian  Ehrhardt,  killed  by  the  Eskimos,  while 
exploring  the  coast  of  Labrador. 

1782.  Joseph  Schebosh,  shot  by  the  murderers  of  ninety- 
six  Indian  converts  near  Gnadenhiitten,  on  the  Muskingum, 
Ohio. 

1800.  John  Michael  Reiman  lost  his  way,  near  Hopedale  in 
Labrador,  during  a  violent  snow-storm.  Periodical  Accounts, 
XIX,  159. 


LECT.XII.]  AID  FROM  WITHOUT.  483 

cess  often  requires  a  period  of  long  toil,  but  impa- 
tience for  results  has  not  been  manifested. 

The  esteem  and  confidence  thus  won  have  led 
to  spontaneous  pecuniary  assistance  from  outside 
sources.  In  1817,  the  London  Association  in 
Aid  of  the  Brethren's  Missions  was  formed  by 
individuals  not  members  of  the  Moravian  Church, 
and  now  has  auxiliaries  and  branches  —  some  of 
them  in  Wales  —  amounting  to  nearly  one  hun- 
dred. From  this  organization,  characteristic  of 
English  liberality,  there  is  received  an  average 
annual  income  of  about  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars,  and  a  total  sum,  from  the  first,  of  more 
than  one  million  five  hundred  and  sixty-five  thou- 
sand dollars.1  A  Dutch  Society  for  the  Promo- 


1  Large  Individual  Gifts. 

1832.    Lord  Bexley  gave        .        .        .  $50,000 

1872.)  A  (      8,485 

1875.jAFnendgave      •        •        •        •  \      5,000 

1880.    Anon,  gave 10,000 

Large  Legacies. 

1865.    G.  Harryman  gave        .        .        .  9,000 

1868.  Miss  Flavel  gave          .        .        .  5,000 

1808.  i 

,Q,,Q  >  Miss  Tottingham  gave          .        .  42,065 

1869.  Mr.  Banniston  gave      .        .        .  10,000 
1869.    J.  W.  Brett  gave  .        .        .  9,965 
1873.  i 

1874  C  ^ss  Harrison  gave      .        .        .  22,865 

1875.    Mrs.  Livins  gave  ....  8,780 

1875.    Miss  Berryman  gave    .        .        .  20,290 


484  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LKCT.XII. 

tion  of  Christian  Knowledge  among  the  Negroes 
of  Surinam  was  established  in  1828;  while  in 
Denmark  there  was  formed,  some  years  since, 
an  association  called  the  Schleswig-Holstein  So- 
ciety, whose  chief  object  is  to  assist  Moravian 
missions  in  the  Danish  Islands. 

"  When  a  man's  ways  please  the  Lord,  he 
maketh  even  his  enemies  to  be  at  peace  with 
him."  Moravians  as  a  body  have  met  with  some 
censures,  chiefly  undeserved  ;  Mpravian^jnissions 
have  been  but  little_criticised.  The  inquiry  may 
fairly  arise,  whether  sufficient  pains  have  been 
taken  in  the  older  foreign  fields  to  educate 
native  churches  in  the  line  of  self-support,  arid 
to  bring  forward  a  native  pastorate.  Great  pains 
have,  indeed,  been  bestowed  upon  both  of  these 
highly  important  and  closely  related  items  of 
missionary  policy;  but  the  question  is,  whether 
they  have  been  pressed  with  all  the  urgency  that 
the  best  interests  of  evangelization  require.  It 
would  seem  that,  after  so  long  a  period,  a  greater 
amount  of  local  independence  should  here  and 
there  have  been  secured  by  the  reproduction, 
out  of  native  stock,  of  churches  fully  equipped 
according  to  the  New  Testament  model  —  though 
their  social  grade  might  not  be  a  high  one  — and 
in  turn  entering  themselves  upon  the  work  of 
evangelization.  As  regards  money  raised  among 
the  missions  —  the  annual  amount  being  toward 
a  hundred  thousand  ($98,000)  dollars  — it  should 


LECT.  xii.]  ESTIMATES.  485 

be  said  that,  while  stated  contributions  are  made 
by  converts  and  by  native  missionary  societies 
towards  the  sustenance  of  their  own  churches, 
there  is  an  income  from  traffic  and  trade.  This 
ought  to  be  reckoned  only  in  part  to  the  score 
of  strictly  indigenous  self-support.  Labrador 
traffic,  for  instance,  which  is  carried  on  with 
England,  forms  a  department  quite  separate 
from  the  work  of  the  mission,  and  is  committed 
to  men  sent  out  by  the  Board  expressly  for  that 
purpose.  In  St.  Thomas,  Surinam,  Mosquitia, 
and  South  Africa,  there  are  unordained  mission- 
aries who  devote  themselves  to  such  secular 
matters,  and  yet  act  also  as  assistants  in  evangel- 
istic work.  This  agency  is  carefully  guarded,  as 
it  has  need  to  be,  against  abuse. 

Criticisms,  however,  whether  they  relate  to  the 
church  or  to  its  foreign  work,  seldom  call  forth 
reply.  Bishop  Spangenberg,  when  asked  whether 
public  replies  should  be  given  to  misrepresenta- 
tions, gave  an  utterance  which  is  still  repeated : 
"  Remain  silent  and  wait  upon  the  Lord."  Quiet- 
ness has  not  been  without  its  reward.  Many  a 
distinguished  man,  on  becoming  acquainted  with 
Moravians,  whether  missionaries  or  otherwise, 
has  felt  a  deep  interest  in  them.  Such,  for  ex- 
ample, was  Lord  Gambier,  the  well-known  ad- 
miral. When  he  sent  ashore  the  despatch  at  Co- 
penhagen demanding  the  answer  of  the  Danish 
fleet,  with  the  alternative  of  bombardment,  he 


486  MORAVIAN   MISSIONS.  [LECT.XH. 

made  use  of  the  opportunity  to  forward  some 
"  weekly  leaves  "  to  the  Moravian  minister  who 
was  then  at  the  Danish  capital.  From  the  ranks 
of  sister  churches  there  occasionally  comes  for- 
ward a  witness  who  can  not  refrain  from  hearty 
panegyric.  In  1808,  Bishop  Porteus  was  moved 
to  publish  his  opinion:  "Among  other  religious 
communities,  they  who  have  most  distinguished 
themselves  in  the  business  of  conversion  are  the 
Moravians,  or  United  Brethren.  These,  indeed, 
have  shown  a  degree  of  zeal,  of  vigor,  of  perse- 
verance, of  unconquerable  spirit,  and  firmness  of 
mind,  which  no  danger,  no  difficulties,  could  sub- 
due (combined  at  the  same  time  with  the  greatest 
gentleness,  prudence  and  moderation),  of  which 
no  example  can  be  found  since  the  first  primitive 
age  of  Christianity."  With  reference  to  their 
evangelistic  labor,  Wilberforce  spoke  of  them  as 
"a  body  of  Christians  who  have,  perhaps,  excelled 
all  mankind  in  solid  and  unequivocal  proofs  of 
the  love  of  Christ,  and  of  the  most  ardent^  active, 
and  patient  zeal  in  his  service.  It  is  a  zeal  tem- 
pered with  prudence,  softened  with  meekness,  so- 
berly aiming  at  great  ends  by  the  gradual  opera- 
tion of  well-adapted  means,  supported  by  a  courage 
which  no  danger  can  intimidate,  and  a  quiet  con- 
stancy which  no  hardship  can  exhaust."  "  Oh, 
when  one  looks  at  the  number  and  greatness  of 
their  achievements,"  exclaims  Doctor  Chalmers, 
"  when  he  thinks  of  the  change  they  have  made 


LKCT.  xii.]  ESTIMATES.  487 

on  materials  so  coarse  and  unpromising ;  when  he 
eyes  the  villages  they  have  formed,  and,  around 
the  whole  of  that  engaging  perspective  by  which 
they  have  chequered  and  relieved  the  grim  soli- 
tude of  the  desert,  he  witnesses  the  love,  and  list- 
ens to  the  piety,  of  reclaimed  savages  —  who 
would  not  long  to  be  in  possession  of  the  charm 
by  which  they  have  wrought  this  wondrous  trans- 
formation ?  who  would  not  willingly  exchange  for 
it  all  the  parade  of  human  eloquence,  and  all  the 
confidence  of  human  argument?"1 

Most  inspiring  it  is  to  contemplate  such  an  ex- 
ample—  the  example  of  a  brotherhood  so  small, 
with  seven  hundred  and  fifty  of  its  communicant 
membership  —  ordained  and  unordained,  male  and 
female  —  engaged  in  the  active  official  service  of 
the  church;  and  which,  while  supplying  a  minis- 
try for  its  congregations,  numbering  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  in  the  home  provinces,  sends 
out  nearly  one  in  every  fifty  of  its  communicants 
for  foreign  missionary  work.  One  little  commu- 
nity, that  of  Konigsfeld  in  the  Black  Forest,  num- 
bering only  four  hundred  and  eighteen  souls,  has 
twenty-one  of  its  sons  and  daughters  in  such  ser- 


1  Rev.  E.  Garbett  says  :  "  I  am  convinced  that,  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  its  members  and  to  the  means  at  its  disposal, 
the  church  of  the  United  Brethren  has  done  more  to  extend  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  throughout  the  world  than  any  other  church 
that  exists."  The  Past  and  Present  Condition  of  Moravian  Mis- 
sions. 


488  MORAVIAN  MISSIONS.  CLECT  xn. 

vice  at  this  time.  Have  they  not  deserved  well 
of  the  Christian  world,  and  of  the  heathen  world, 
too ?  Flf  all  Protestant  churches  had  been  equally 
devoted,  equally  enterprising,  for  the  last  century 
and  a  half,  not  an  unevangelized  man  or  woman 

would  now  remain  on  eartn?.    The   stream   has 

•  .  — — * 

been  small,  but  unfailing  and  pure,  and  it  has  fer- 
tilized many  a  desert.  Other  communions  have 
here  "a  little  sister"  who  hath  done  what  she 
could;  the  perfume  of  her  alabaster  box  hath 
filled  the  house ;  the  possibilities  of  poverty  and 
paucity  of  numbers  have  been  demonstrated. 
This  quiet  fidelity  in  missionary  toils  has  been  a 
silent  rebuke  and  a  stimulus  to  Protestant  Chris- 
tendom; it  has  been  a  noiseless  and  not  fully 
acknowledged  motive-force  in  the  subsequent  en- 
deavors of  other  communions  in  behalf  of  the  hea- 
then. But  what  one  of  them  in  modern  times  has 
exhibited  such  enfranchisement  from  self-seeking, 
and  such  persistent  loyalty  to  Christ's  final  order? 
Is  there  not  urgency  upon  us,  too?  Let  the  dead 
of  the  past  and  of  the  present  bury  their  dead. 
Would  that  at  the  head  of  every  great  division  of 
the  sacramental  host  there  might  be  a  sanctified 
Barbarossa !  Marching  for  the  re-conquest  of  Je- 
rusalem, word  comes  to  him  that  his  son  is  dead. 
*'  Woe  to  me  I  "  cries  the  monarch ;  "  is  my  son 
dead  ?  "  And  tears  course  down  his  beard.  "  My 
son  is  slain,  but  Christ  still  lives !  Forward  then, 
soldiers;  march!" 


LITERATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECTS.1 


LECTURE  I.     THE  MORAVIANS. 

THE    RENEWED    CHURCH. 

I.     HISTORY    AND    CHARACTERISTICS. 

1.  CRANZ,  David,     (a)    Alte    und    neue    Briiderhistorie,    1722. 

(Continued  by  Henger.)  (b)  The  Ancient  and  Modern 
History  of  the  Brethren.  (Translation  with  notes  by 
Benj.  Latrobe.  London,  1780.) 

2.  NACHRICHT  von  dem  Ursprung,  u.  a.  w.  der  Briider-Unitat, 

1781.     (Vorrede  von  A.  F.  Biisching.) 

3.  HOLMES,  John.      History  of  the  Protestant   Church  of  the 

United  Brethren.    2  vols.    London,  1825. 

4.  SCHAFF,  C.  F.  L.    Evangelische  Briidergemeinde,  1825. 

6.  BOST,  J.  A.  (a)  Histoire  do  1'Eglise  des  Freres  de  Bohe'ine 
et  Moravie.  Paris,  1844.  2  vols.  (b)  History  of  the 
Moravians.  (Translation  and  Abridgment,  with  an  Ap- 
pendix. London  Religious  Tract  Society.  1848. 

6.  LITIZ.     Blicke  in   die   Vergangenheit  und   Gegenwart    der 

Briider-Kirche.     1840. 

7.  CROGER,  E.  W.      Geschichte  der  erneuerten  Briider-Kirche. 

3  Thle.    Gnadau,  1852-1854. 

8.  (a)  GEDENKTAGE  der  erneuerten  Briider-Kirche.    Neue  Auf. 

1848.  (b)  The  Memorial  Days  of  the  Renewed  Church 
of  the  Brethren.  (Translation  from  an  earlier  edition, 
1821.) 

1  References  are  not  made  to  encyclopedias  —  Herzog,  McClintock 
and  Strong,  Britannica,  etc.,  —  to  ethnological  works  —  Prichard,  Waitz, 
Miiller,  Peschel,—  nor  to  other  comprehensive  and  miscellaneous  works, 
in  which  pertinent  information  may  be  found. 

(491) 


492  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SUBJECTS. 

9.  FOURTH  Centennial  Anniversary  of  the  Moravian  Church. 
Three  Sermons.    Philadelphia,  1857. 

10.  NITZSCH,  C.  J.    Kirchengeschichtliche  Bedeutung  der  Brii- 

dergemeine,  1858. 

11.  HENRY,  James.     Sketches  of  Moravian  Life  and  Character. 

Philadelphia,  1859. 

12.  BRIEF  Narrative  of  the  Origin  and  Progress  of  the  Church 

of  the  Unitas  Fratrum.    London,  1860. 

13.  SCHWEINITZ,  Edmund  de.    The  Moravian  Manual.     Second 

edition.    Bethlehem,  1869. 

14.  REICHEL,  William  C.    Memorials  of  the  Moravian  Church. 

Philadelphia,  1870. 

15.  LEITFADEN    zum   Untericht  iiber  Geschichte,   Zweck  und 

Wesen,  etc.    2  Auf .    Gnadau,  1875. 

17.  KDRTZGEFASSTE    Nachricht    von     der    ev.    Bruder-Unitat. 

7  Auf.     1876. 

18.  MORAVIAN    Life :    An  English   Girl's    [Beatrice   Stebbing] 

Account  of  a  Settlement  in  the  Black  Forest.    General 
Protestant  Episcopal  Sunday-school  Union.    New  York. 

II.      BIOGRAPHY.1 

1.  RISLEB,  Jeremias.    Leben  August  Gottlieb   Spangenberg. 

Barby,  1794. 

2.  BENHAM,  Daniel.     Sketch  of  the  Life  of  John  Comenius. 

(Prefixed  to  his  "  School  of  Infancy."    London,  1858.) 

3.  JOHNSON,  Walter  R.    Memoir  of  Lewis  David  von  Schwein- 

itz.    Philadelphia,  1835. 

4.  HOLLAND  and  Everett.    Memoirs  of  James  Montgomery. 

7  vols.    London,  1864. 

5.  KNIGHT,  Helen  C.    Life  of  James  Montgomery.    Boston, 

1857. 

6.  BENHAM,  Daniel.      Memoirs   of   James   Hutton.      London, 

1856. 

7.  BENHAM,  Daniel.      Life   and  Labors   of  Bishop   Gambold. 

London,  1865. 

8.  LOCKWOOD,  J.  P.    Memorials  of  the  Life  of  Peter  Bohler. 

London,  1868. 

1  See  also  Literature  for  the  Lecture  on  Count  Zinzendorf. 


LITERATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECTS.  493 

9.  HITTER,  Abraham.  History  of  the  Moravian  Church  in 
Philadelphia.  Philadelphia,  1857. 

10.  HANKIN,  Christiana  C.    Life  of  Mary  Anne   Schimmelpen- 

ninck.    Fourth  edition.    London,  1860. 

11.  SCHWEINITZ,  Edmund   de.      Some  of  the   Fathers  of  the 

American  Moravian  Church.    Bethlehem,  1882. 

III.      POLITY,  RITUAL,   AND   BELIEF. 

1.  SPANGENBERG,  A.  G.     (a)  Idea  Fidei  Fratrum,  oder  kurtzer 

Begriff,  etc.  Barby,  1779.  (b)  Exposition  of  Christian 
Doctrine  as  taught  in  the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren. 
(Translation,  second  edition.  London,  1792.) 

2.  BENGEL,  J.  A.    Abriss  der  Briidergemeine.    1751. 

3.  SCHNECKENBCRGER,  M.     Vorlcsungen  iiber  die  Lehrbegriffe 

der  Kleineren  protestantischen  Kirchenpartcien.  Frank- 
furt a.  M.,  1863. 

4.  EBRARD,  J.  H.  A.     Handbuch  der  Christ.    Kirchen-  und  Dog- 

men-Geschichte.    1866.    4  Bde.    Vierter  Band.     132-146. 
6.  SYNODAL  Results.     Sundry  volumes.     (Especially  those  of 
1848,  1857,  1869,  1879.) 

6.  SCIIWKIXITZ,    Edmund    de.      The    Moravian    Episcopate. 

Bethlehem,  1865. 

7.  SCHAFF,  Philip.    Creeds  of  Christendom.    Three   volumes. 

New  York,  1877.    I,  pp.  874-881.    Ill,  789-806. 

8.  CATECHISM   of   Christian   Doctrine  for  the   Instruction  of 

Youth.    Philadelphia,  1875. 

9.  CATECHISM  for  the  Instruction  of  Candidates  for  Confirma- 

tion.   Philadelphia,  1876. 

10.  HYMN  Books.      (Various  editions,   with    and    without  the 

Liturgy.) 

11.  HIST.  Nachricht  vom  Briider-Gesangbuche  des  Jahres,  1778. 

Barby,  1851. 

THE    ANCIENT    CHURCH. 

I.      BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

1.  CRANZ,  David.  Alte  und  neue  Briiderhistorie,  1722.  (In 
the  translation  by  Benj.  Latrobe,  twenty-two  authorities 
are  prefixed.) 


494  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECTS. 

2.  GINDELY,  A.    Quellen  zur  Geschichtc  der  Bohmischen  Brii- 

der.  Wien,  1859.  (Vol.  XIX  of  the  Fontes  Rerum  Aus- 
tricarum.) 

3.  SCHWEINITZ,    Edmund    de.       The    Moravian    Episcopate. 

Bethlehem,  1865.  (With  historical  notices  of  leading 
authorities.) 

4.  REUS,    Rodolphe.      La   Destruction    du    Protestantisme    en 

Boheme.  Nouv.  Ed.  Strasbourg  et  Paris,  1868.  125- 
189.  (For  years  1618-1630,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
authorities.) 

6.  CZERWENKA,  Bernliard.  Geschichte  der  evan.  Kirche  in 
Bohmen.  2  Bde.  Bielefeld  und  Leipzig,  1869-1870.  (In 
the  Preface  xi-xv,  over  twenty  authorities,  with  more  or 
less  of  criticism.  Also  Volume  II,  Preface  v-xi.) 

6.  MALIN,  W.  G.  Catalogue  of  Books  relating  to  the  Unitas 
Fratrum.  Philadelphia,  1881. 

II.      HISTORY   AND  BELIEF. 

1.  (a)  Historia   Persecutionum  Ecclesiae  Bohemicse,  1648.      (6) 

The  History  of  the  Bohemian  Persecution.  London, 
1650.  (A  translation.)  (c)  Das  Persecutionsbiichlein. 
(German  translation  of  Historia,  etc.,  by  Bernhard 
Czerwenka,  1869.) 

2.  COMENITTS,  J.  A.     (a)  De  Bono  Unitatis,  etc.      (Reprinted  in 

London,  1710.)  (b)  An  Exhortation  of  the  Churches  of 
Bohemia.  (Translation  by  Thomas  Parkhurst.  1661.) 

3.  GEDENKTAGE   der    alten    Briider-Kirche,    nebst    einem   An- 

hange,  1840. 

4.  GILLETT,   E.    H.     Life  and  Times  of  John  Huss.    2  vols. 

Third  edition.    Boston,  1871. 

5.  BENHAM,    Daniel.      Life    of    Comenius.      (Prefixed    to    his 

"  School  of  Infancy."    London,  1858.) 

6.  LAURIE,    S.    S.      John    Amos    Comenius,    Bishop     of    the 

Moravians,  his  Life  and  Educational  Works.  London, 
1881. 

7.  BENHAM,  Daniel.    Notes  on  the  Origin  and  Episcopate   of 

the  Bohemian  Brethren.    London,  1858. 

8.  RATIO  Discipline  Ordinisque  EC.  in  Unitate  Fratrum  Bohe- 


LITERATURE  OP  THE   SUBJECTS.  495 

morum.     (The  original  Latin,  with  a  translation.    Notes 
and  Introduction  by  B.  B.  Seifferth.    London,  1866.) 
9.  PALACKT,  T.     Geschichte   von  Bohmen.      10  Bde.      Prag, 
1844-1867. 

10.  PALACKY,  T.    Die  Vorlaufer  des  Hussitenthums.     1869. 

11.  PESCHECK,   C.  A.      Geschichte    der    Gegenreformation    in 

Bohmen.      2  Bde.      Leipzig,    1850.      (A  translation  ap- 
peared, London,  1845.) 

12.  GINDELY,  A.    Geschichte  der  Bohmischen  Briider  im  Zeit- 

alter  der  Reformation.    Bde.     1857-1858. 

13.  CROGER,  E.  W.    Geschichte  der  alten  Briider-Kirche.    2  Bde. 

1865-1866. 

14.  RECS,  Rodolphe.      La    Destruction  du  Protestantisme   en 

Boheme.    Nouv.  Ed.     Strasbourg  et  Paris,  1868. 

15.  CZERWENKA,  B.    Geschichte  der  evang.  Kirche  in  Bohmen. 

2  Bde.     1869-1871. 

16.  WHATELY,  E.   Jane.      The   Gospel    in  Bohemia.      London 

Religious  Tract  Society. 

17.  MEANS,  J.  W.     Heroes   of  Bohemian  Life.     Philadelphia, 

1879. 

18.  SCHWEINITZ,   Edmund   de.      Catechism    of    the  Bohemian 

Brethren,  from  the   Old  German,  with  an   Introduction. 
Bethlehem,  1869. 

19.  SCIIAFF,  Philip.     Creeds   of   Christendom.      3  vols.      New 

York,  1877.    I,  565-591. 


LECTURE  II.     COUNT  ZINZENDORF.' 

1.  JUKG,  W.  F.  Der  in  dem  Grafen  von  Zinzendorf  noch 
lebende  und  lehrende  wie  auch  leidende  und  siegende 
Doctor  Luthur.  1752. 


1  See  Zinzendorf  B  Writings,  which  number  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  publications. 


496  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SUBJECTS. 

2.  SPANGENBERG,  A.  G.     (a)  Leben  des  Herrn  N.  L.  Grafen 

von  Zinzendorf  8  Thle.  1772-1775.  (6)  (Translated  and 
abridged  by  Samuel  Jackson,  with  Introduction  by  P. 
Latrobe.  London,  1888.) 

3.  SPANGENBERG,  A.  G.    Darlegung  richtiger  Antworten  auf 

mehr  als  drey  hundert  Beschuldigungen  gegen  den  Or- 
dinarium  Fratrum. 

4.  MULLER,  J.  G.    Bekentnisse  Merkwiirdiger  Manner.     1775. 

Band  drit. 

6.  SCHRAUTENBACH,  L.  C.  von.    Der  Graf  von  Zinzendorf  und 
die  Briidergemeine  seiner  Zeit.    1782. 

6.  DUVERNOY,  J.  C.    Kurzgef asste  Lebensgeschichte  des  u.  s.  w. 

1793. 

7.  EEICHEL,  G.  B.    Leben  des  Grafen  von  Zinzendorf.    1790. 

8.  VARNHAGEN  von  Ense.    Leben  des  Grafen  von  Zinzendorf. 

1830. 

9.  THOLUCK,  A.    Vermischte  Scriften.     1839.    I,  433-64. 

10.  KOLBING,  F.  W.    Der  Graf  von  Zinzendorf :    Eine  Skizze. 

11.  VERBECK,  J.  W.    Des  Grafen  N.  L.  von  Zinzendorf  Leben 

und  Character.    1845. 

12.  KNAPP,  A.     Geistliche  Gedichte  mit  einer  Lebenskizze  des 

Grafen  von  Zinzendorf.    1845. 

13.  SCHRODER,  J.  F.    Der  Graf  von  Zinzendorf  und  Herrnhut. 

1857. 

14.  PILGRAM,  F.    Leben  und   Wirken   des   Grafen  N.  L.   von 

Zinzendorf.    1857. 

15.  HENRY,  James.     Sketches  of  Moravian  Life  and  Character. 

Philadelphia,  1859.    pp.  69-98. 

16.  BOVET,  Felix,     (a)  Le  Comte  de  Zinzendorf.    Paris,  1860. 

(b)  (Translated  by  John  Gill,  under  the  unauthorized 
title  of  "  The  Banished  Count."} 

17.  PLATH,  C.  H.  C.    Sieben  Zeugen  des  Herrn.    1869.    pp. 

76-105. 

18.  PLITT,  Hermann.    Zinzendorf's  Theologie.    3  Bde.    1869- 

1874. 

19.  GLACBRECHT,  D.    Zinzendorf  in  der  Wetterau.    1879. 


LITERATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECTS.  497 


LECTURE   III.    WEST  INDIES. 

I.      THE   ISLANDS. 

1.  EDWARDS,  Bryan.    History,  Civil  and  Commercial,  of  the 

British  West  Indies.     6  vols.     Fifth  edition.     London. 
1812. 

2.  THORNE,  J.  A.,  and  Kimball,  J.  H.    Emancipation  in   the 

West  Indies.    New  York,  1838. 

3.  BAIRD,  Robert.    Impressions  and  Experiences  in  the  West 

Indies.    Philadelphia,  1849. 

4.  DAVY,  J.    The  West  Indies  before  and  since  Slave  Emanci- 

pation.   1854. 

6.  MONTGOMERY,  James.    The  West  Indies :    A  Poem  in  Four 
Parts. 

6.  TROLLOPE,  Anthony.    The  West  Indies  and  the   Spanish 

Main.    Leipzig,  1860. 

7.  BCXTON,  Charles.     Slavery  and  Freedom  in  the    British 

West  Indies.    London,  1860. 

8.  KINGSLEY,  Charles.     At  Last:    A  Christmas  in  the  West 

Indies.    2  vols.    1871. 

9.  UNDERIIILL,  Edward  B.    The  West  Indies.    London. 
10.  HORSFORD,  J.    A  Voice  from  the  West  Indies.    1856. 

II.      THE   MISSION.1 

1.  MISSIONARY   Records :      West   Indies.      London  Religious 

Tract  Society. 

2.  MISSIONS  of  the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  the 

Danish  West  India  Islands.2    London,  1832. 


1  In  the  Literature  relating  to  Moravian  Missions,  no  references  are 
made  to  general  mission   histories,  such  as  those  of  William  Brown, 
Smith    and    Choules,   Wiggers,    Blumhardt,  Burckhardt,  Kalkar,  and 
Grundemann  ;  nor  to  comprehensive  works  on  Geography,  Ethnography, 
and  Religions. 

2  Harriet  W.  Ellis,  in  Denmark  and  Her  Missions,  210-241,  by  a  singu- 
lar mistake,  treats  of  Moravian  Missions  to  the  Danish  West  Indies  as 
if  they  were  Danish  Missions. 

32 


498  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SUBJECTS. 

3.  BUCHNER,  J.  H.    The  Moravians  in  Jamaica.    London,  1854. 

4.  RETROSPECT  of  the  Brethren's  Church  in  Jamaica. 
6.  RETROSPECT  of  the  Brethren's  Church  in  Antigua. 

6.  RETROSPECT  of  the  Brethren's  Church  in  St.  Kitt's. 

7.  RETROSPECT  of  the  Brethren's  Church  in  Barbados. 

8.  RETROSPECT  of  the  Brethren's  Church  in  Tobago. 

9.  OLDENDORP,  C.  G.  A.     Geschichte  der  Mission  den  Caraib- 

ischen  Inseln.    2  Th.    Barby,  1777. 

10.  RISLER,  J.    Erzalungen. 

11.  MissiONS-BiLDER:     Sechtes  u   Sieb.  Heften.     Calw,  1868- 

1869. 


LECTURE  IV.   SOUTH  AND  CENTRAL 
AMERICA. 

I.      COUNTRY  AND  PEOPLE. 

1.  RALEIGH,  Sir  Walter.    The  Discoverie  of  the  Large,  Rich, 

and  Bewtivl  Empire  of  Guiana,  1596. 

2.  HUMBOLDT  and  Bonpland.    Travels  to  the  Equinoctial  Re- 

gions of  America.    3  vols. 

3.  SCHOMBURGH,  Robert  H.    A  Description  of  British  Guiana. 

London,  1840. 

4.  COTHEAL,  Alex.  J.     Grammatical   Sketch  of  the  Language 

spoken  by  the  Indians  of  the  Mosquito  Shore.    In  Trans- 
lations of  American  Ethnological  Society.     Vol.  II. 
6.  HENDERSON,    George.      Sketch  of    the    Mosquito    Indians, 
(pp.  164-237.    Appended  to  his  Account  of  Honduras. 
London,  1811.) 

6.  BERICHT   tiber  das  Mosquitoland.      Berlin,  1849.     (p.  7,  a 

limited  Bibliography.) 

7.  BARD,  Samuel.    [Squier,  E.  G.]     Waikna :    or,  Adventures 

on  the  Mosquito  Shore.    New  York,  1865. 


LITERATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECTS.  499 

8.  SQUIER,  E.  G.    The  States  of  Central  America.    New  York, 

1858. 

9.  SQCIER,  E.  G.    Monograph  of  Authors  who  have  written 

on  the  Languages  of  Central  America.  London,  1861. 
(Over  a  hundred  Authors ;  and  an  Appendix  containing 
a  list  of  books  and  MSS.,  more  than  fifty  in  number, 
relating  wholly  or  in  part  to  the  History,  Aborigines,  and 
Antiquities  of  Central  America.) 

10.  BELL,  Charles  N.    Remarks  on  the  Mosquito  Territory.    In 

Journal  of  London  Geographical  Society,  VoL  XXXII, 
1862. 

11.  BRETT,  W.  H.    Indian  Tribes  of  Guiana.    London,  1868. 

12.  BRETT,  W.  H.    Mission  Work  in  Guiana.    London  :  Society 

for  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge. 

13.  BROWN,  C.  Barrington.      Canoe  and  Canoe  Life  in  British 

Guiana.    London,  1876. 

14.  BATES,  II.  W.    Central  and  South  America.    London,  1878 

(Stanford's  Compendium  of  Geography  and  Travels.) 

II.      THE    MISSIONS. 

1.  MISSIONARY  Guide  Book.    London,  1846. 

2.  BERNAU,  J.  H.    Missionary  Labors  in  British  Guiana.     Lon- 

don, 1847.    pp.  62-73. 

3.  CROWE,  Frederick.    The  Gospel  in  Central  America.    Lon- 

don, 1850. 

4.  RISLER,  J.    Erzalungen. 

5.  QDANDT,  E.    Nachricht  von  Suriname  und  seinen  Eiuwoh- 

nern.    Gorlitz,  1807. 
0.  MISSIONS-BILDER  :  Sechtes  Heft.    Calw,  1868. 


LECTURE  V.    GREENLAND. 


I.      BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


1.  JONES,  T.  Rupert.    Manual  of  the  Natural  History,  Geology 
and  Physics  of  Greenland.    London,  1875.    (The  appendix, 


500  LITEEATUEE  OF  THE  SUBJECTS. 

pp.  750-754,  gives  one  hundred  and  sixteen  authorities,  in 
chronological  order,  from  only  1816  to  1874,  besides  eight 
additional  references.) 

2.  DIE  LITERATUR  iiber  die  Polar-Eegionen  der  Erde.     1878. 

3.  ARCTIC  Voyages  of  Adolph  Erik  Nordenskiold.     London, 

1879.  (List  of  books  and  memoirs  relating  to  the  Swedish 
Arctic  Expeditions.  Appendix  II.) 

II.      COUNTRY   AND   PEOPLE. 

1.  EGEDE,  Hans.    A  Description  of    Greenland.     (From    the 

German.  With  Historical  Introduction  and  Life  of  the 
Author.  London,  1818.) 

2.  CRANZ,  David,     (a)  Historic  von  Gronland.    2  Bde.    Barby, 

1765.  Vol.  I,  1-275.  (b)  History  of  Greenland.  2  vols. 
London,  1767.  (A  translation.) 

3.  GRAAH,  W.  A.    An  Expedition  to  the  East  Coast  of  Green- 

land.    (From  the  Danish.)    London,  1837. 

4.  KANE,  Elisha  K.    The  Land  of  Desolation.    New  York,  1856. 

5.  SARGENT,  Epes.    Arctic  Adventures  by  Sea  and  Land,  1860. 

6.  HALL,  Charles  T.    Arctic  Eesearches  and  Life  among  the 

Esquimaux.    New  York,  1845. 

7.  MARKHAM,  Clement  B.    Arctic   Geography  and  Ethnogra- 

phy.   Eoyal  Geographical  Society.     1875. 

8.  RINK,  Henry.    Tales  and  Traditions  of  the  Eskimos.    Lon- 

don, 1875.     (From  the  Danish,  by  the  author.) 

9.  BANCROFT,  Hubert  H.    Native  Eaces  of  the  Pacific  States. 

6  vols.    New  York,  1875. 
10.  BRODBECK,  F.    Nach  Osten.    Niesky,  1882. 

III.      THE   MISSION. 

1.  CRANZ,  David,     (a)  Historic  von  Gronland.    2  Bde.    Barby, 

1765.  (b)  History  of  Greenland.  2  vols.  London,  1767. 
(A  translation.) 

2.  CRANZ,  David.    Fortsetzung  der  Briider-Historie.     2  Bde. 

1791. 

3.  KOLBING,  F.  L.    Die  Mission  der  Evangelische  Briider  in 

Gronland.    Gnadau,  1831. 

4.  THE  MORAVIANS  in  Greenland.    Edinburgh,  1839. 


LITERATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECTS.  501 

6.  LIVES  of  Missionaries.  Greenland :  Matthew  Stach  and  his 
Associates,  pp.  88-224.  London :  Society  for  Promotion 
of  Christian  Knowledge. 

6.  MONTGOMERY,  James.    Poems :  Greenland  (five  cantos). 

IV.      FOR   THE    YO0NG. 

1.  REALM  of  the  Ice  King.    London  Religious  Tract  Society. 

2.  BRIGHTWELL,   Miss.     Romance  of  Modern   Missions.    Lon- 

don Religious  Tract  Society. 

3.  H.  L.  L.    Story  of  Moravian  Missions  in  Greenland  and  Lab- 

rador.    London,  1873. 

4.  MISSIONARY  Worthies  in  the  Moravian   Church.     Philadel- 

phia :  American  Sunday  School  Union. 
6.  MISSIONARY  Stories.    London,  1826. 

6.  SKETCHES  of  Moravian  Worthies.     Philadelphia :  American 

Sunday  School  Union. 

7.  STRANGERS  in  Greenland.    American  Tract  Society. 

8.  MISSIONS-BILDER.    Funftes  Heft.    Calw,  1867. 


LECTURE  VI.    LABRADOR. 

I.      THE    COUNTRY. 

1.  DOBBS,  Arthur.    An  Account  of  the  Countries  Adjoining  to 

Hudson's  Bay.    London,  1744. 

2.  CARTWRIGHT,  George.      A    Journal    of    Transactions    and 

Events  during  a  Residence  of  nearly  Sixteen  Years  on  the 
Coast  of  Labrador.    3  vols.,  quarto.    Newark,  1790. 

3.  HIND,  Henry  Y.     Explorations  in  the  Interior  of  the  Labra- 

dor Peninsula.    London,  1863. 

4.  NOBLE,  Louis  L.      After  Icebergs   with    a    Painter.      New 

York,  1861. 

6.  HARPER'S  New  Magazine.     Vol.  XXII,  1860. 
6.  THE  ATLANTIC  Monthly.     Ice  and   the   Esquimaux.      VoL 

XIV,  1860. 


502  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECTS. 


II.      THE    MISSION.  * 

1.  KOLBING,  F.  L.     Die  Mission  der  Evangelischen  Briider  in 

Labrador.     Gnadau,  1831. 

2.  MISSIONS  in  Labrador.    Dublin,  1831.    Religious  Tract  and 

Book  Society  for  Ireland. 

3.  (a)    DIB  MISSIONEN  der  Briider-Unitat  Labrador.     Gnadau, 

1871.     (b)  History  of  the  Missions  of  the  United  Brethren 
in  Labrador.     1871. 

4.  MEMOIRS  of  Brother  Benjamin  Gottlieb  Kohlmeister.    Lon- 

don, 1845. 
6.  MEMOIRS  of  Brother  George  Kmoch,  Missionary  in  Labrador. 

London,  1858. 
6.  DEWITZ,  A.  von.    An  der  Kiiste  Labradors.    Niesky,  1881. 


LECTURES  VII  AND  VIII.      NORTH- 
AMERICAN  INDIANS. 

I.      BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

1.  LUDWIG,  Hermann  C.    Literature  of  American  Aboriginal 

Languages.     (With  additions  and  corrections  by  W.  W. 
Turner.    London,  1858.) 

2.  FIELD,  F.  W.    Essay  toward  an  Indian  Bibliography.    New- 

York,  1873. 

II.      HISTORY,  CHARACTERISTICS,  LANGUAGES  AND  RELIGION. 

1.  HECKEWELDER,  John,  (a)  History,  Manners  and  Customs 
of  the  Indian  Nations.  (Best  edition  that  of  Philadelphia. 
1876.)  (b)  German  Translation,  with  additions  by  Hesse, 
Gottingen,  1821.  (c)  French  Translation.  Paris,  1822. 

1  Dr.  William  Brown  makes  no  reference  to  this  mission  in  his  history. 


LITEEATUEE  OF  THE   SUBJECTS.  503 

2.  EDWARDS,  Jonathan.     (The  Younger.)     Works.     Andover, 

1842.     Vol.  I,  469-480. 

3.  GALATIN,  Albert.      Synopsis  of  the    Indian    Tribes.      (In 

Transactions  American  Antiquarian  Society,  Vol.  II.  Sup- 
plemented by  papers  in  Transactions  American  Ethnolog- 
ical Society,  Vols.  I  and  II.) 

4.  SCIIOOLCRAFT,  Henry  R.    Information  respecting  the  Indian 

Tribes.    6  vols. 

6.  SCIIOOLCRAFT,  Henry  R.    Algic  Researches.     First  Series. 
2  vols.    New  York,  1839. 

6.  CATLIN,  George.    Illustrations  of  the  Manners,  Customs  and 

Condition  of  the  North-American  Indians.  2  vols.  Lon- 
don, 1841. 

7.  BANCROFT,  George.    History   of  the  United  States.    Four- 

teenth edition.    Boston,  1853.    Vol.  IH,  235-318. 

8.  PARKMAN,  Francis.    Conspiracy  of  Pontiac.    Eighth  edition 

2  vols.    Boston,  1877.    Vol.  1, 1-45. 

9.  PARKMAN,  Francis.    The  Jesuits  in  North  America.    Eleventh 

edition.    Boston,  1878.    pp.  xix-lxxix. 

10.  MORGAN,  Lewis  H.    League  of  the  Ho-de-no-sau-nee ;  or,  The 

Iroquois.    Rochester,  1854. 

11.  DE  FOREST,  J.  W.    History  of  the  Indians  of  Connecticut. 

Hartford. 

12.  DRAKE,  Samuel  C.     Aboriginal  Races  of  North  America. 

Fifteenth  edition.    Philadelphia,  1860. 

13.  MULLER,  J.  G.    Geschichte  der  Amer.  Urreligionen.    Basel, 

1865.    pp.  1-151. 

14.  BRINTON,  Daniel  G.    Myths  of  the  New  World.    Second  edi- 

tion.   New  York,  1876. 

15.  WILLIAMS,  Roger.    Key  to  the  Languages  of  America,  1864. 

(Edited,  with  Notes  and  Introduction,  by  J.  II.  Trumbull, 
for  the  Narragansett  Club.  Providence,  1866.) 

16.  PICKERING,  John.    Indian  Languages  of  America.     (An  Ap- 

pendix to  the  Encyclopaedia  Americana,  1836.  Vol.  VI, 
581-600.) 

17.  DUPONCEAU,  Peter.    Memoire  sur  le  Syste'me  Grammaticale 

des  Languages  de  l'Ame'rique  du  Nord.     Paris,  1836. 

18.  TRUMBULL,  J.  Hammond.      (In  Johnson's  Cyclopaedia,  1878. 

Vol.  II,  1155-1165.) 


504  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECTS. 

19.  REANE,  A.  H.    Ethnography  and  Philology  of  America.    (Ap- 

pendix to  Bates's  Central  and  South  America.  Stanford. 
London,  1878.  pp.  443-561.) 

20.  H.  H.  (Mrs.  Jackson.)    A  Century  of  Dishonor.     New  York, 

1881. 

21.  ELLIS,  George  E.    The  Eed  Man  and  the   White  Man  of 

North  America.    Boston,  1882. 

III.      THE    MISSIONS. 

1.  LOSKIEL,  Georg  H.    (a)  Geschichte  der  Mission  der  Evan- 

gelische  Briider  unter  den  Indianern  in  Nordamerika.  Bar- 
by,  1789.  (b)  History  of  the  Missions,  etc.  (Translated 
by  C.  J.  Latrobe.  London,  1749.) 

2.  HECKEWELDER,  John.    Narrative   of  the   Missions  of  the 

United  Brethren  among  the  Delaware  and  Mohegan 
Tribes.  Philadelphia,  1808. 

3.  HOLMES,  John.    Historical  Sketches.    Second  edition.    Lon- 

don, 1827. 

4.  HISTORY  of  the  Moravian  Missions  among  the   Indians  of 

North  America.    London,  1838. 

6.  MEMORIALS  of  the  Moravian  Church.  (Edited  by  W.  C. 
Reichel.  Philadelphia,  1870.) 

6.  MEMORIALS  of  the  Dedication  of  Monuments,  etc.    New 

York  and  Philadelphia,  1860. 

7.  RISLER,  Jeremias.    Leben  August  G.  Spangenberg.    Barby, 

1794.    pp.  109-158,  212-242,  273-363. 

8.  RONDTHALER,  Edward.    Life  of  John  Heckewelder.     Phila- 

delphia, 1847. 

9.  SCHWEINITZ,  Edmund  de.    Life  and  Times  of  David  Zeis- 

berger.    Philadelphia,  1870. 

10.  FRITSCHEL,  Gottlieb.  Geschichte  der  Christian  Missions 
unter  den  Indianern  Nordamerikas.  Nurenberg,  1870. 
pp.  147-176. 

IV.      FOR   THE   YOUNG. 

1.  TSCHOOP  :    The    Converted    Indian    Chief.      Philadelphia : 

American  Sunday  School  Union. 

2.  SKETCHES  of  Moravian  Missions.    Philadelphia:  American 

Sunday  School  Union. 


LITERATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECTS.  505 

3.  ANECDOTES  of  Missionary  Worthies  of  the  Moravian  Church. 

Philadelphia :  American  Sunday  School  Union. 

4.  Missiox-BiLDER.    Zweite  Auf.    Calw,  1877.    Viertes  Heft. 


LECTURES  IX  AND  X.     SOUTH  AFRICA. 

I.      BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

1.  MURRAY,   Hugh.     Historical   Account    of    Discoveries    and 

Travels  in  Africa.    2  vols.    Appendix. 

2.  TERNAUX-COMPANS,    H.      Bibliotheque    Asiatique    et    Afri- 

caine;  ou  Catalogue  des  Ouvrages  relatifs  a  1'Asie  et 
a  1'Afrique  qui  ont  paru  depuis  le  dccouverte  de  1'impre- 
merie  jusqu'au  1700.  Paris,  1841.  (Titles,  3,184;  au- 
thors, 1,333.) 

3.  GAY,  Jean.    Bibliographic  de  1'Afrique  et  de  1'Arabie.     San 

Remo,  Italic,  1876.  (Relating  to  Africa,  3,347  titles; 
and  yet  far  from  complete.) 

4.  FRITSCII,   Gustav.     Die    Eingeborenen    Siid-Afrika's,  Nebst 

einem  Atlas.    Breslau,  1872.    Literatur,  Angabe  s.  510-12. 

II.      COUNTRY   AND  PEOPLE. 

1.  KOLBEN,  Peter.    Present  State  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope ; 

or,  A  Particular  Account  of  the  Hottentots,  etc.  (From 
the  German,  by  Gindo  Medley.  Vol.  II.  London,  1731.) 

2.  LICHTENSTEIN,  Henry.     Travels  in  Southern  Africa.     (From 

the  German,  by  Anne  Plumtre.    London,  1812.    2  vols.) 

3.  BARROW,  John.    Travels  in  the  Interior  of  Southern  Africa. 

London,  1801.    2  vols. 

4.  CAMPBELL,    John.      Travels    in    South    Africa.      Andover, 

1810. 
6.  BCRCHELL,  William.     Travels  in  the   Interior  of   Southern 

Africa.    2  vols.    London,  1822. 
6.  THOMPSON,    George.      Travels    and    Adventures    in    South 

Africa.    2  vols.    London,  1827. 


506  LITERATURE  OP  THE   SUBJECTS. 

7.  PHILIP,  John.    Researches  in  South  Africa.    London,  1828. 

8.  REPORT  of  the  Parliamentary  Select  Committee  on  Aborig- 

inal Tribes.    London,  1837. 

9.  JUSTUS  (pseudonym).    Wrongs  of  the  Caffre  Nation.    Lon- 

•  don, 1837. 

10.  PRINGLE,  Thomas.     Narrative  of   a  Residence  in  South 

Africa.    London,  1842. 

11.  BACKHOUSE,  James.    Narrative  of  a  Visit  to  Mauritius  and 

South  Africa.    London,  1844. 

12.  GROUT,  Lewis.     The  Izizulu :     A  Grammar  of  the  Zulu 

Language.      With    an    Historical    Introduction.      Natal 
and  London,  1859. 

13.  CHAPMAN,  James.    Travels  in  the  Interior  of  South  Africa. 

2  vols.    London,  1868. 

14.  WILMOT,  A.,  and  Chase,  John   C.    History  of  the   Colony 

of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.    Cape  Town,  1869. 

15.  TAYLOR,  Bayard.    Travels  in   South  Africa.    New   York, 

1872. 

16.  NOBLE,  John.    Researches  in  South  Africa.    London,  1877. 

17.  D'ANVERS,  N.    Heroes  of  South  African  Discovery.    Lon- 

don, 1878. 

18.  JOHNSON,  Keith.    Africa :   Stanford's  Compendium  of  Geog- 

raphy and  Travel.    London,  1878. 

19.  TROLLOPE,  Anthony.     South  Africa.    2  vols.    London,  1878. 

20.  C0NNYNGHAME,  Arthur  T.    My  Command  in  South  Africa. 

London,  1877. 

21.  FROCDE,  James  Anthony.    Two  Lectures  on  South  Africa. 

London,  1860. 

III.      THE   MISSION. 

1.  COMMISSIONERS'  Report  on  the   Hottentot  Population  and 

Missionary  Institutions.    Cape  Town,  1838. 

2.  LATHOBE,  C.  J.    Journal  of  a  Visit  to  South  Africa.    Sec- 

ond edition.    London,  1821. 

3.  MISSIONS  in  South  Africa.     Dublin  Religious  Tract  and 

Book  Society,  1832. 

4.  CIVILIZATION  and  Christianization  in  South  Africa.    Edin- 

burgh, 1832. 


LITEKATTJKE  OF  THE  SUBJECTS.  507 

6.  M'CAETER,  John.     The  Dutch  Reformed  Church  in   South 
Africa.    Edinburgh,  1869. 

6.  ROWLEY,  Henry.    Africa  Unveiled.    London,  1876. 

7.  MOISTER,   William.     Africa  —  Past  and  Present.     London, 

1879. 

8.  CARLYLE,  J.  E.     South  Africa  and  its  Missions.     London, 

1879. 

9.  PAMPHLETS  on  Polygamy,      (a)  Remarks  by  John  W.   Co- 

lenso.  Pietermaritzburg,  1856.  (6)  Reply  by  Lewis  Grout. 
Pietermaritzburg,  1855.  (c)  An  Answer  by  H.  A.  Wilder. 
Pietermaritzburg,  1855.  (d)  A  Letter  by  Bishop  Co- 
lenso.  Pietermaritzburg,  1855.  (e)  Review  of  Bishop 
Colenso's  Remarks.  Durban,  1855.  (/)  Letters  of  H. 
Callaway.  Durban,  1862.  (g)  Two  Sermons  by  H.  Cal- 
laway.  Pieterraaritzburg,  1866.  (h)  By  Frederick  A. 
Ross.  Philadelphia,  1857.  (f)  Government  Regulations. 
Pietermaritzburg,  1869. 

IV.      FOB   THE   YOUNG. 

1.  ADAMS,  H.  C.    Hair-Breadth  Escapes;  or,  The  Adventures 

of  Three  Boys  in  South  Africa.    London. 

2.  HOME  in  South  Africa.     London.    Society  for  Promotion 

of  Christian  Knowledge. 

3.  CHARLIE  Douglas's  Visit  to  a  Mission  Station.    By  a  Sister 

of  the  late  Bishop  Mackenzie. 

4.  THE  GOSPEL  Among  the  Caffres.    American  Tract  Society. 


LECTURE  ELEVEN.  AUSTRALIA. 

I.      COUNTRY   AND   PEOPLE.1 

1.  PERON,  M.  F.    Voyage  de  Decouvertes  aux  Torres  Austra- 
les.    4  Tomes.    Paris. 

1  La  quantity  de  documents  publte  sur  1' Australia  depuis  Tasmanjus- 
qu'au  num»5ro  du  2  decembre,  1871,  de  I' Australasian,  de  Melbourne, 
le  dprnier  quo  j'aie  lu.est  vrairaent  prodigieuse.  D'autres  descriptions, 
et  en  uouibre  inlini,  out  elo  traces  par  Pbalipp,  Tuckey,  Collins,  Barring- 


508  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SUBJECTS. 

2.  NAPIER,    Charles    James.       Colonization,    Particularly    in 

Southern  Africa.    London,  1835. 

3.  MITCHELL,  T.  L.      Three  Expeditions  to  the  Interior  of 

Australia.    2  vols.    London,  1838. 

4.  BACKHOUSE,  James.    Visit  to  the  Australian  Colonies.    Lon- 

don, 1843. 

6.  HOWITT,  Richard.    Impressions   of  Australia-Felix.     Lon- 
don, 1845. 

6.  WILKES,  Charles.      United    States   Exploring  Expedition. 

Philadelphia,  1845.    II,  155-277. 

7.  STOKES,  J.  Lort.     Discoveries  in  Australia.    2  vols.    Lon- 

don, 1846. 

8.  HOOKER,  Joseph  Dalton.    The  Flora  of  Australia.    London, 

1859. 

9.  UNGER,  F.    Neu-Holland  in  Europa.    Wien,  1861. 

10.  HALE,    Horatio.      United    States    Exploring    Expedition. 

Philadelphia,  1864.    pp.  106-116,  479-631. 

11.  MAJOR,  R.  H.    Early  Voyages  to  Terra  Australis.    London, 

1869. 

12.  MARCET,    Edward.    Australie:    Un  Voyage  a  Travers  le 

Bush.    Gene've,  1868. 

13.  DE  BEAUVOIR,  Le   Comte.     (a)  Australie.     Deux  edition. 

Paris,  1869.     (b)  A  Voyage  Round  the  World.     (Trans- 
lation by  the  Author.    2  vols.    London,  1876.) 

14.  BADEN-POWELL,  George  S.    New  Homes  for  the  Old  Coun- 

try.   London,  1872. 

15.  RANKEN,  W.  H.  L.    The  Dominion  of  Australia.    London, 

1874. 

16.  TROLLOPE,  Anthony.    Explorations  in  Australia.    London, 

1876. 

17.  FOREST,  John.    Explorations  in  Australia.    London,  1875. 

18.  BOOTHBT,  Josiah.    Statistical  Sketch  of  South  Australia. 

London,  1876. 

ton,  P6ron,  Flinders,  Freycinet,  King,  Lesson,  Hombron,  Cunningham, 
Seott-Nind,  Dawson,  Wilkes,  Hale,  Bennet,  Mitchell,  Grey,  Stokes,  Eyre, 
Howitt,  Merritt,  Hodgkinson,  Mackenzie,  Rudesindo,  Earl,  Stanbridge, 
Blandowski,  Beveridge,  Marcet,  Wilhemi,  Dunmore,  Lang,  Martin  Q. 
Lang,  Jardine,  Oldlield,  Kennedy,  Krefft,  etc.,  etc.  Topinard :  Les  Races 
Indigenes  de  I  'Australia,  38. 


LITERATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECTS.  509 

19.  EDEN,  Charles  H.    The  Fifth  Continent.    London,  1878. 

20.  WALLACE,  A.  R.    Australasia.     (Stanford's  Compendium  of 

Geography  and  Travel.    London,  1879.) 

21.  NATIVE  Tribes  of  Australia.    Woods,  J.  D. :  Introductory 

Chapter.  Taplin,  George :  The  Narrinyeri.  Wyatt,  J.  P. : 
The  Adelaide  Tribe.  Meyer,  A.:  The  Encounter  Bay 
Company.  Schumann,  C.  W. :  The  Port  Lincoln  Tribe. 
Gason,  S. :  The  Dieyerie  Tribe.  -Bennett,  J.  W.  O. :  Vo- 
cabulary of  Woolner  District. 

II.      THE   MISSION. 

1.  TAPLIN,  George.    The  Narrinyeri.    Adelaide,  1879. 

2.  WAITZ,  Theodor  (G.  Gerland).     Anthropologie  der  Natur- 

vulker.    VI,  820,  829. 

3.  MISSIONSGESCHICHTE  in   Heften.     Evan.  Biicherverein  zu 

Berlin,  1869.    e.  1-102. 

4.  ALGEMEINE  Missions  Zeitschrift.    Drit.  Band  (1876).    pp. 

401-406. 

5.  SCHNEIDER,  H.  G.    Missionsarbeit  der  Briidergemeine  in 

Australien.    Gnadau,  1882. 


LECTURE   XII.     R^SUMIS   AND   CHAR- 
ACTERISTICS. 

1.  (a)   GEDENKTAGE  der  ern.    Briider-Kirche.     Gnadau.     (6) 

Memorial  Days  of  the  Renewed  Church.    Ashton-under- 
Lyne,1822. 

2.  REICHEL,  Levin  T.    Missions-Atlas  der  Briider-Unitat,  1860. 
8.  (a)  DAS  MISSIONSWERK  der  evan.  Brudergemeine.    2  Aus. 

Gnadau,  1861.     (b)  The  Mission  Work  of  the  Church  of 
the  United  Brethren.    London,  1870. 

4.  DIE  HEIDEN-MISSION  der  Briider-Unitat.    Gnadau,  1869. 

5.  PERIODICAL  Accounts.    Especially  Vol.  XXXII,  Nos.  334, 

335.    (The  publication  commenced  in  1790.) 


510  LITERATURE  OF   THE   SUBJECTS. 

6.  HOLMES,  John.    Historical  Sketches  of  the  Missions  of  the 

United  Brethren.     Second  edition.    London,  1827. 

7.  MONTGOMERY,  James.     Sketch  of  the  Mission  of  the  Church 

of  the  United  Brethren. 

8.  MISSIONARY  Manual  and  Directory.    Bethlehem,  1875. 

9.  MORAVIAN  Almanack.    London,  32  Fetter  Lane,  1871-1882. 

10.  INSTRUCTIONS  for  Missionaries.     Second  edition.    London, 

1840. 

11.  LETTER   of  Instruction    to   the   Missionaries  in  the   West 

Indies.    Bethlehem,  1866. 

12.  (a)  REGULATIO  des  Missions-Departments.     1867.     (6)  Regu- 

lations Issued  hy  the  Mission  Department. 

13.  RESULTS  of  the  General  Synod  of  1879.    London,  1881.    pp. 

109-148. 

14.  GARBETT,  E.    Past  and  Present  Condition  of  the  Moravian 

Missions.     (A  Lecture.)     London,  1852. 

15.  SERMONS  by  (a)  William  Marsh,  1826 ;  (6)  John  Stephenson, 

1847;  (c)  E.  B.  Elliott,  1854;  (d)  J.  D.  Libbey,  1872;  (e) 
Henry  Wright,  1873. 

16.  DAILY  Prayers  for  Moravian  Households.    London,  32  Fet- 

ter Lane. 


INDEX. 


ABIENA,  156. 

Acawois,  130. 

Adams,  Anne,  400. 

Adelaide,  431,  434,  435. 

Africa,  345-353. 

Africa,  Central,  34T. 

Africa,  Northern,  352-353. 

Africa,  South,  346,  353-377,  331-385. 

Africo,  350. 

Algiers,  457. 

Algonquins,  287. 

Annaszorg,  151. 

Amelia,  Princess,  81. 

Antigua,  107-112. 

Anthony,  a  Delaware,  315-316. 

Anthony,  a  slave,  80. 

Anti-Reformation,  27. 

Arabi,  140-141. 

Arawaks,  131, 133, 135-136, 138,  185. 

Ardent  Spirits,  326-327,  360,  432. 

Augsburg  Confession,  8-9. 

Augustus  the  Strong,  48. 

Australia,  415-421,427. 

Australians,  421-427. 

Azar,  the,  353. 

BAMIIEY,  141-142, 144. 

Bantu,  357,  397. 

Haptistn  of.children,  110. 

Baptisms,  mercenary,  106. 

Barbados,  112-114. 

Barbarossa,  488. 

Barrow,  Sir  John,  386. 

Barsoe,  143. 

Barth,35l. 

Bauch,  144. 

Bautzen,  3,  80. 

Bavian's  Kloof,  366-371. 

Belize,  ICO. 

Benkes,  Hendrick,  399. 

Berbice,  133. 

Berg,  J.  T.,  21. 

Berg-en-Dal,  143. 

Berkenhagen,  NTS.,  473. 

Berthelsdorf,  5,  6, 10,  49. 

Bethlehem,  287. 

Bible.  Bohemian,  26-27,  29,  31. 

Bible  translations,  477-478. 

Bluetields,  159, 161. 


Boers,  369-370,  391-392. 

Bohemia,  22,  23,  461. 

Bohemian  martyrs,  23-26. 

Bohler,  Peter,  202,  309. 

Bonisch,  Frederick,  176,  211,  253. 

Boomerang,  423. 

Brainerd,  David,  202,  241,  268,  286, 

326,  337. 

Braun,  Peter,  108, 110. 
Broos,  154. 
Bruhl,  Count,  64. 
Bucer.  Martin,  14. 
Bunsen,  Baroness,  20. 
Burgos,  168. 
Burns.  W.  C.,  470. 
Bush  Negroes,  136,  139-146, 158. 
Bushmen,  389-396. 
Butler,  S.  P.,  247. 

CALMTJCKS,  457. 

Canimerhoff,  Bishop,  297,  309,  324. 

Campbell,  Sir  Colin,  469. 

Canterbury,  Lord,  447. 

Capliz,  Casper,  28. 

Carey,  Wm.,  73. 

Caribbean  Sea,  164-166. 

Caribs,  131, 136, 138,  158,  166. 

Carpenter,  Charles  C.,  247-248. 

Central  Asia,  455. 

Ceylon,  457. 

Chalmers,  Dr.  T.,  486-487. 

Charles  XII,  43. 

Charlottenburg,  149. 

Cherokees,  341. 

Children,  208. 

China,  457. 

Cholera,  Asiatic,  113. 

Christian  VI,  71,80. 

Christians,  titled,  74. 

Christiana,  an  Eskimo,  203. 

Christiana,  an  Indian,  337. 

Church  festivals,  17. 

Civilization,  310-312,  408-410,  444- 

447. 

Coffee-plant,  132. 
Columbus,  82,  95, 166. 
Comenius,  Amos,  12, 18-19,  29-30. 
Commandoes,  392-394. 
Conestoga  Manor,  334. 

(511) 


512 


INDEX. 


Conference,  Unity's  Elders',  10. 

Converts,  91,  93-95,  98-99,  105-106, 
114,  117-118,  134-135,  144-146, 
147,  149,  154-156,  163-164,  203- 
208,  236-244,  319-325,  33.%  356, 
360-361,  367-369,  372-374,  400- 
401,  442-443. 

Conviction  of  Sin,  87-88,  320,  372- 
373. 

Convicts,  430-431,  438. 

Cook,  Captain,  420,  422. 

Coolies,  149. 

Cornelius,  91,  93-94. 

Cottika,  136. 

Croger,  Bishop,  6. 

DAHNE,  132, 137-138. 

Daily  Word,  182-183. 

Danes,  249-250. 

David,  Christian,  32-34,  52, 177. 

Deaths  by  violence,  482. 

Delawares,  289,  325. 

Delusion,  208-209,  317-318. 

Demarara,  131,  150. 

Denke,  Christian,  477. 

De  Schweinitz,  Bishop  Edmund,  6. 

De  bchweinitz,  L.  D.,  21. 

Devotional  liabits,  478-480. 

Diamonds,  383. 

Diaspora,  459-461. 

Dickadick,  442. 

Dober,  Leonhard,  72,  80-85,  94. 

Doddridge,  Philip,  50. 

Dogs,  220-221,  231. 

Drachart,  226. 

D'Urban,   Sir    Benjamin,   399-M1, 

403 
Dutch, 'the,  354,    361-363,    391-395, 

404. 
Dying  out,  449. 

EASTER,  17-18. 

East  Indies,  457, 

Ebenezer,  429,  442,  447. 

Echpalawchund,  316. 

Education,  Moravian,  18-20. 

Egede,  176, 178, 182. 

Egypt,  458. 

Ehrhardt,  J.  C.,  222-224. 

Klim,  306. 

Eisner,  235. 

Emancipation,  100-101,  111. 

Embarrassments,  230-232,  248-250, 

326-332,  338,  402,  427-428,  430- 

432,  467. 

English  Language,  163. 
Enon,  398,  402. 
Epbraim,  136. 
Episcopal  Seal,  464. 
Episcopate,  Moravian,  11-13. 
Eskimos,  183-186,  219-221,  228,  231- 

232,  245, 260-251,  259-261. 


Example  influential,  482-483, 488. 

FABRICIUS.  GEORGE,  304, 333. 
Fairfield,  292,  313,  332,  340. 
Famine,  231. 
Ferdinand  II,  27. 
Fetkannas,  399. 
Fingoes,  399. 
Franke,  43,  44,  68. 
Franklin,  Captain,  262. 
Frederick  William,  64. 
Friedenhiitten,  289-290. 
Friederichsthal,  211-212. 
Fulneck,  32. 

GAMBIER,  ADMIRAL  LORD,  256, 

485. 

Game,  384. 
Gansee,  143. 
Garbett,  Kev.  E.,  487. 
Gardelin,  Governor,  84. 
Gelelemend,  317. 
Genadendal,  371,  386-387,  396. 
Geographical  irony,  217. 
Gersdorf ,  Baroness  von,  42-43. 
Gideon,  283. 
Gifts,  large,  96-97. 
Gingee,  144. 
Gippsland,  429,  432. 
Glaciers,  181-182. 
Glikkikan,  315,  322. 
Gnadenhiitten,    207,    290-291,   333, 

339. 

Goedverwacht,  396. 
Goejaba,  152,  154. 
Goschgoschlink,  290. 
Great  men,  41. 
Greenland,  179-182,  217. 
Greenland,  mission  to,  175,  248  255. 
Groenekloof,  371-372. 
Gross- Hennersdorf  (see  Henners- 

dorf.) 

Grube,  Adam.  305. 
Guiana,  128-132. 
Guinea,  458. 

HAGENAUR,  432. 

Hallbeck,477. 

Hamilton,  Charles,  467-468. 

Harmony  (the  packet),  257-259. 

Hartmann,  Mrs.,  143-144. 

Haselius,  E.  L.,  21. 

Haven,  Jens,  224-230. 

Hebron,  230. 

Helpers,  native,  91-98,  237,  283,  399. 

Heckewelder,  John,  294-296. 

Hehl,  Matthew,  293. 

Hemel-en-Aarde,  387. 

Hendrick,  297. 

Hengstenberg,  21. 

Hennersdorf,  33,  42-43. 

Heroism,  225. 


INDEX. 


513 


Herrnhut,  archives,  4 ;  Bretliren'8 
House,  4 ;  cemetery,  5 ;  de- 
scribed, 3;  evening  "service,  7; 
founded,  34  ;  Hutberp,  5  ;  Sis- 
ters' House,  4  ;  small,  36,  79; 
Wesley's  visit,  68,  202. 

Hidden  Seed,  tbe,  31. 

Hill,  Rowland,  168. 

Hochkirch,  3. 

Hocbwald,  22. 

Hodge,  Arthur,  120. 

Hoftenthal  (Hopedale),  218,  229, 241, 
243. 

Hoop,  138-139. 

Hottentots,  356-360,  363-365,  372, 
3'JO. 

Housatonic,  282. 

Hudson's  Bay  Company,  184,  221- 
222. 

Huguenots,  362,  383. 

Hungary,  31. 

Huntingdon,  Countess,  74. 

Huron-lroquois,  287. 

Huse,  461. 

Hutberg,  5,  35,  72. 

Hymns,  110,  208. 

ICEHKRGS,  181-182,  219. 
Improvidence,  250-251. 
Indians,  characteristic!!,  267-269, 

272.  326;  Christianized,  319-325; 

hatred,  332  ;  languages,  267-271 ; 

massacred,     T533-338;    missions 

among,  273-270  ;  numbers,  271; 

religion,  272;  wars,  329-334. 
Insurrections,  ill,  99,  114. 
Iroquois,  288-289. 
Isles,  Samuel,  107-108. 

JABLONSKY,  BISHOP,  12. 
Jackson,  Bishop,  112. 
Jaschke,  George,  32-33. 
Jiischke,  missionary,  456,  477. 
Jamaica,  95-97. 
Jansen,  Governor,  370. 
Jesenius,  23. 

Johnson,  Sir  William,  326. 
Jungmann,  J.  G.,  305. 

KAFIRS,  397-400. 
Kaietur  falls,  129. 
Kaiarnak,  198-201. 
Kalkoen,  145-146. 
Karpik,  236,  441. 
Kane,  Dr.,  213,  260. 
Karroos,  385. 
Kaunaumeek,  286. 
Kent,  282-283. 
Keposh,  317. 
King,  John,  145-146. 
Kleinschmidt,  477-478. 
Kluge,  J.  P.,  305. 


Kmoch,  George,  253. 
Koffy  Camp,  143, 166. 
Kohlmeister,  B.  G.,  253-254. 
Kohrammer,  370. 
Koi-Koin  (see  Hottentots). 
KdniS8feld,487. 
Koniggratz,  23,  28. 
Kraal,  359. 
Kyelang,  144, 455. 

LABRADOR,  217. 

Large  gifts, 483. 

Lapland,  458. 

Las  Casas,  168. 

Latrobe,  Joseph,  427. 

Lawunakhannek,  315. 

Lebart,  155. 

Ledyard,  469. 

Leitner,  388. 

Leper  Hospital,  387-389,  446,  459. 

Leprosy,  147. 

Leupofd,  Tobias,  72,  85. 

Liberality,  117,  207. 

Lichtenau,  211,262. 

Lichtenfels,  211. 

Lichtenstein,  Dr.,  387,  405. 

Liebisch,  Samuel,  224-225,  234. 

Literary  labors,  477-478. 

Longevity,  253-255, 305. 

JXKJS,  Otto  von,  28. 

Loskiel,  309. 

Love  for  souls,  468-469. 

Loyola,  67. 

Lukenbach,  A.,  477. 

Luther,  Martin,  13. 

MAcnrwiHiLUSiNO,  290,  312. 

Mamre,  372,  396. 

Mapara,  401. 

Marsden,  Samuel,  433. 

Marsveld,  Henry,  402. 

Martin,  Frederick,  87. 

Martin,  Sir  W.,  246. 

Martyn,  Henry,  370-371. 

Massacres,  333-338. 

Matilda,  Princess,  161. 

Mather,  Cotton,  270. 

Mayhews,  274. 

Mechanical  arts,  404. 

Melbourne,  421,  431. 

Michael,  339. 

Mikak,  227. 

Mills,  S.  J.,  254. 

Missionaries  in  prison,  85-86  ;  per- 
secuted, 87  ;  love  their  work,  88. 

Missionary :  auxiliary  societies,  474, 
483-484  ;  cheerfulness,  210,  295- 
296,  300,  472;  children,  473; 
cities,  474 ;  comity,  467-468  ; 
consecration,  73;  defeats,  484; 
economy,  474-476;  embarrass- 
ments, 151-154, 162, 338 ;  growth, 


33 


514 


INDEX. 


465-466;  heroism,  225,  300-302; 
longevity,  305;  modesty,  471- 
472  ;  perils,  137,  142,  152,  210- 
211,  233-235,  295,  299  ;  secular 
service,  294-302 ;  self-denial, 
298  ;  spirit,  464,  488  ;  successes, 
170-171 ,  338-339 ;  trials,  228, 284- 
286;  436;  vessels,  256-259. 

Missions  aided  from  without,  483- 
485. 

Mistakes,  89,  97-98. 

Mohammedans,  348,  353. 

Montgomery,  James,  258. 

Montgomery,  John,  114, 116. 

Monseys,  298,  300,  312,  325. 

Monthly  Concert,  479. 

Moral  earnestness,  205-207. 

Moravianism,  317. 

Moravians :  Ancient  church,  24-31, 
at  the  Reformation, 26;  Bucer's 
opinion,  14  ;  Christian  festivals, 
17;  church  polity,  10;  comity, 
467-468;  customs,  7;  discipline, 
13;  diverse  elements,  51-52; 
^arly  evangelistic  elements,  463- 
464;  early  martyrs,  25-28;  East- 
er, 17-18;  Episcopate,  11-13; 
finances,  473-474;  in  England, 
67,  58;  in  Georgia,  276-277; 
Luther's  opinion,  13  ;  maligned, 
321,405-407;  martyrs, 25-28, 102; 
missionary  growth,\  465-466; 
missionary  spirit,1-  36-37.  464 ; 
missionary  zeal,Nj21-123;'  per- 
secutions, 25-31;  perseverance, 
^tll ;  preach  Christ,  9 ;  priva- 
tions, 357  ;  readiness  for  ser- 
vice, 469-470  ;  religious  belief, 
8-9;  religious  life,  15-17;  reli- 
gious regimen,  49-50;  revival, 
33-35;  ritual,  15;  schools,  18-20; 
temperament,  7;  the  "Hidden 
Seed,"  31;  their  center,  6;  three 
provinces,  10,  25;  the  sifting 
period,  55-57;  trials  sanctified, 
37 ;  unostentatious,  471 ;  Zin- 
zendorf' s  influence,  49. 

Mortality,  91-92,  113,  116,  122,  142, 
144,  148-149. 

Mosquito  Coast,  157-161, 163. 

Murray  River,  415. 

NAIN,  227,  328. 

Napier,    Lieutenant-Colonel,    406- 

407. 

Nascopies,  219. 
Nathaniel,  442. 
Native  assistants,  140,  251-252,  313- 

317. 

Natives  dying  out,  259.  438-439. 
Negroes  maltreated,  86. 
Neissers,  33-34. 


Netawatwes,  316. 

New  Gnadenhiitten,  292,  311,  328. 

New  Herrnhut,  203,  211,  252. 

New  Salem,  310-311,  313,  329. 

Nicodemus,  314. 

Nitschmann,  Anna,  310. 

Nitschmann,  David,  80,  84, 177, 182, 

309. 

Nitschmann,  Martin,  333. 
Nitschmanii,  Susanna,  333. 
Nominal  Christians,  unprincipled. 

327. 

OGLETHORPE,  GENERAL,  296. 
Okak,  229-231,  245-240. 
Olshausen,  21. 
Onondaga,  297. 
Orange  River,  382. 

PACIIGATGOCH,  282. 

Papunhank,  318. 

Paramaribo,  135,  146,  149-150,  154, 

156. 

Parksaut,  241. 
Paxnous,  319. 
Persecution,  461-462. 
Persia,  457. 
Pfeiffer,  100. 
Pilgerhut,  133-134. 
Pless,  Count  von,  89, 178. 
Potatick,  282. 
Porteus,  Bishop,  486. 
Power  of  the  Cross,  198-200. 
Prayer-day,  323. 
Prayer  Union,  479-480. 
Preachers,  lay,  66. 
Pringle,  Thomas,  392. 
Proselytism,  4G3,  466-468. 
Prostau,  28. 
Prostiborsky,  John,  27. 
Providential  preservation,  295,  299- 

300,  481. 
Pyrlaeus,  288,  293,  297,  304. 

RALEIGH,  SIB  WALTER,  129. 
Raman,  164,  230. 
Ramahyuok,  429,  445-446. 
Ranch,  Christian   Henry,  278-281, 

294 

Reichel,  Bishop  L.  T.,  6. 
Results,  212-213,   244-247,    259-261, 

402-404.  411,  429,  440-447. 
Revivals,  33,  35,53,  69,  101-102,  109- 

110, 163-164, 241-244. 312-313, 386. 
Richter;  Khrenfried,  457. 
Rimius,  60. 
Robben  Island,  387. 
Roman  Catholics,  153, 161. 
Ronneberg,  52. 
Ryland,  Dr.,  73. 

SALEM,  311. 


INDEX. 


515 


Salisbury,  282. 

Samoyedes,  458. 

Saramacca,  140,  144. 

Savages,  127-128. 

Scatticokes,  283. 

SchJiffer,  72,  460. 

Schebosh,  Joseph,  335. 

Schleiermacher,  21. 

Schlick,  Andreas,  27. 

Schmick,  J.  J.,  293,304. 

Schmidt,  Erasmus,  142. 

Schmidt,  George,  354-355,  360-361, 

365-866. 
Schmit,  402. 

Schonbrun,  291,  811,330. 
Schumann,  135. 
Schneider,  Daniel,  211. 
Schwanberg,  Baron  von,  25. 
Scripture  translated,  235-335. 
Secular  occupations,  485. 
Seiffert,  Anthony,  276. 
Self-help,  250. 
Seminary,  Theological,  103. 
Senfkorn-Orden,  68-72. 
Sensemann,  Mrs.,  333. 
Sergeant,  John,  275,  355. 
Shainokin,  289. 
Sharon,  136,  282. 
Shekomeko,  278-281,  286. 
Shikellimy,  316. 
Shiloh,  398,  410. 
Sigsigak,  238. 

Slavery,  107,  110-121,  130, 150,  348. 
Slave-trade,  100,  119,  168-170,  348- 

or<>     ^62 

Smithes ir  Harry,  401,  410. 
Sommolsdyke,  148. 
Sonderend',  404. 
Southey,  Captain,  121. 
Southey,  Robert,  57. 
Spangenberg,  Bishop,  104,  256,  276, 

369,  485. 

Spaniards,  167-168. 
Spener,  42-43,  45,  52. 
Spiritual  coincidences,  201. 
Spiritual  experience,  203-207. 
Springplace,  341. 
Stach,  Matthew,  176-178,  473. 
St.  Christopher's,  103-106,  122. 
St.  Croix,  85,  89-92. 
St.  John,  92. 
St.  Thomas,  72,  82. 
Stanley,  Lord,  450. 
Stolberg,  Countess,  81. 
Stoll,  Rudolph,  142. 
Stompjes,  Wilhelmina,  400. 
Stowell,  Sir  William,  445. 
Success,  448. 
Surinam,  132, 135,  139. 
Synod,  General,  10. 

TALJ^EYBAND,  254-255. 


Tambookies,  398. 

Taplin,  George,  424,  440. 

Tappe,  459. 

Tasmania,  439. 

Tessier,  Governor,  147. 

Thibet,  455-456. 

Thibetan,  450. 

Tholuck,  Professor,  66. 

Threlkeld,  434. 

Tobacco,  233. 

Tobago,  115-117. 

Tornadoes,  114,  159. 

Training-schools,  103.  396. 

Trollope,  Anthony,  171,  447-448. 

Tschoop,  278-281. 

Turner,  234. 

Tuscarawas,  Valley  of,  291,  335. 

UNQAVA  BAY,  244. 
Unitas  Fratrum  (see  Moravians). 
United  Brethren  (see  Moravians). 
Unsuccessful  missions,  457-458. 

VANDERKEMP,  405-106. 
Vanity,  national,  185. 
Van  Riebeck,  Governor,  363. 
Victoria  Regia,  129. 
Virgin  Islands,  83,  93-94,  96. 
Von  Canstein,  43,  47. 
Voyages,  89. 

WALDENSES,  12, 462. 

Warrows,  130,  138. 

Warte,  Die,  292. 

Watteville,  Frederick  von,  69. 

Watteville,  Joannes  von,  170,  310. 

Wechquadnach,  282,  286. 

Wechquefank,  290,  334. 

Week  of  Prayer,  245. 

Wesley,  Charles,  202. 

Wesley,  Joh7i,  45,  57-60,  202-203. 

West  indies,  79,  82-83, 119-122, 165- 

171. 

Wetterau  71. 
Wetterhold,  Captain,  334. 
Whitak,282. 

Whitetield,  45,  58-59,  202,  286. 
WhiteBeld  House,  287. 
White  Eyes,  309. 
Whiteley,  Henry,  120. 
White  River,  341. 
Wilberforce.  Win.,  121,  409,  486. 
Wimmera,  William,  441. 
Women,  239-240,  423-424,  429-430. 
Wyoming,  Valley  of,  310,  330. 

ZEISBEROEK,  289,  296-305,  310,  313, 
318,  327,  330,  339,  477. 

Ziegenhalg,  354. 

Zinzendorf ,  Count,  9,  15,  33,  462 ; 
as  author,  60,  61 ;  as  hymn- 
writer,  61 ;  as  preacher,  54-50 ; 


516 


INDEX. 


at  Halle,  44 ;  at  St.  John,  85-86; 
at  Paris,  46;  at  Utrecht,  46  ;  at 
Wittenberg,  44,  45;  calumni- 
ated, 63-64;  Christian  activity, 
53-54 ;  Christian  firmness,  47, 
63  ;  councilor  and  educator,  49  ; 
devotion  to  Christ,  66-67  ;  early 
missionary  zeal,  67-69,  74;  early 
piety,  43,  44  ;  early  travels,  46 ; 
formative  influence,  51-52;  gen- 
eral warden,  51-52 ;  industry, 
62;  in  North  America,  310; 


marriage,  69-71 ;  mission  to 
Greenland,  175-176  ;  motto,  67  ; 
ordination  and  ministry,  51-52  ; 
parentage,  42 ;  pecuniary  af- 
fairs, 62 ;  purchases  Berthels- 
dorf,  49  ;  sifting  period,  55_-57  ; 
the  Saxon  Court,  4S  ;  vindi- 
cated, 65  ;  Zinzendorf  and  Wes- 
ley compared,  59-60. 

Zoar,  230. 

Zondereinde,  356,  404. 


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